


Negative Feedback

by BookBird1497



Series: Spooky Science [1]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Action/Adventure, Camera, F/F, F/M, First story here, Ghosts, Other, Phantom - Freeform, damn daniel back at it again, please be kind
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-01
Updated: 2016-11-19
Packaged: 2018-07-11 13:26:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 40
Words: 147,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7053541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BookBird1497/pseuds/BookBird1497
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Something has gone horribly wrong, and young Camry Dowell can't help but be in the thick of it all. A freak happening in her own home sends her hurtling through the walls of dimensions and time, and with no way to stop it she's helpless to the effects: the city she winds up in is completely unfamiliar; no one she tries to talk to can see her; and to make matters even worse, she can't pick up or touch anything. As she wanders the city of Amity Park, Camry can't help but grow weaker and weaker without being able to eat or drink. With all-consuming confusion as her main emotion, all hope seems lost until an unlikely encounter ensues, leading to a few answers and even more questions than before. Is Camry doomed, or can her mysterious condition be reversed in time?</p>
<p>Set some time after Danny learns to control his ice powers. Rated PG, though this will involve typical fighting action/violence. Nickelodeon/Butch Hartman owns Danny Phantom, I own my plot and OC. Will NOT be an OCXcharacter story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

I never thought it would come to this.

And why in the world would I have expected this to happen to me?

I'll bet not even a bona-fide psychic could have predicted it.

I was in my room, minding my own business, at about one o' clock in the morning on a Friday night. I'd been dinking around on my laptop, watching YouTube videos and catching up on my social media hubs, when I remembered that my fingernails were getting too long. So, I rolled off my bed and walked to where my clippers were: in one of the drawers in the attached bathroom. I had it all to myself, more or less, since I am an only child and my parents respect my privacy.

After taking a look at my hands, I had to smile with pride. 'I overcame my habit to bite my nails. And all it took was getting good at nail art... Go figure.' I had the wide array of nail polish colors and more than enough tiny paint tools to vindicate my claim of being good at it.

But then, before I could start trimming, I heard a noise drift up from downstairs. I was home alone-- Mom and Dad were at a party and wouldn't be back until a bit later-- and of course the instant I heard it I got nervous. 'Is there someone down there? Oh, no...'

It sounded like a metallic thumping, which slightly discouraged the idea of footsteps. Still, I couldn't just jump to conclusions; evidence was necessary. With that in mind, I fastened on a bra- wouldn't want to be seen without one, even if it was just nothing- under my pajama shirt and grabbed my old camera off the bedside table.

It was an old Polaroid type, one that printed the picture out after the shot was taken. I loved it, especially since it earned me the somewhat affectionate nickname my entire school gave me: Cam. Most of the newer kids were convinced it was my actual name, even.

Anyway, back to the matter at hand. With the camera poised for a photo opportunity and my slow footsteps all but ghostly silent on the carpeted staircase, I crept down to the ground floor and into the main hallway, passing hung picture frames along the way. The kitchen light was on? I could see its glow from around the corner, at the end of the hall. Were Mom and Dad back and I just didn't hear them come in?

The thought gave my anxiety a little break, and I walked with a little less caution toward the entrance of the kitchen. That confidence vanished when the yellowish light switched suddenly to a sickly green, and the thumping grew louder. Now that I was closer, I could take a guess and say either the oven or the microwave was the cause of the ruckus.

I swallowed down a psychological lump in my throat. 'Should I say something?'

But I didn't, seeing how I was probably alone in the house anyway. 'Still, _someone_ has to be making that noise in there.'

I stood rigidly with my toes all but touching the spot on the floor that divided the carpeted hallway from the linoleum of the kitchen. My first big mistake was milliseconds away, and I didn't even realize it when I crossed over the threshold and took two steps in.

Now I could look to my left and see the source of the green light: the entire oven and stove-top was giving off a sort of radiance that had a funny-feeling heat to it. Out of habit I checked the display for the time and saw that it didn't read anything near one 'o clock in the morning. Instead the numbers were changing rapidly, too fast to make _any_ sense of.

"What?" I wondered, the first thing I'd said aloud in a while; my lips had to unstick from each other.

The thumping was definitely louder now, but it seemed to come from inside the oven rather than the entire appliance. I even saw the door open a centimeter at most and then close again, like something was struggling to get out. Another lump was swallowed, and I crept closer on bare, hesitant feet.

'What do I do, what do I _do_?' I bit my lower lip nervously and shakily raised my camera up to snap a quick photo of the phenomenon. The picture popped out at the bottom, and I waved it around to help the film develop faster. When it cleared up, I was disappointed to see no green glow or even most of the oven, which was shrouded in nighttime darkness according to the image.

'Why is that?' I asked myself, and raised an eyebrow at the sight before me. 'Clearly it's glowing green. Why won't that show up in the picture?'

Finally, I took a risk. "Uhm... hello? Is somebody there?"

The thumping stopped! The sound of my voice made it pause in its antics, though it started up again after a few seconds of my surprised silence. 'Okay, then. I'll say more.'

"Hello? Is there something in the oven, or am I just going crazy?" I asked, taking another two steps closer. The horizontal handle was only a few feet in front of me.

Again it paused, but this time it didn't start again for a while. Rather, I was shocked to hear a hissing sound emit from within the oven. 'Gas? Is there a gas leak? Oh, no, I should get out of here-'

"Pleasssse... Let me... out..."

'It's... not a gas leak' I concluded, and took another picture from this position just in case it would help. Again, I didn't see anything eerie in the image. "Let you out? Who _are_ you?"

"Pleasssse... Jusssst want to... be free again. Will you help... me?"

The elongated S's immediately brought a snake to mind, but that was ridiculous. What would a snake be doing in my oven- much less one that talked!

"First tell me what you are," I demanded, keeping a tight grip on my camera. Suddenly I was feeling a little under-protected without a weapon of any sort. Well, my emery board was sitting comfortably in the pocket of my sweatpants, but that wouldn't protect me from _jack_. "And what are you doing here? Am I going crazy?"

"Craaazzzzy?" the voice stretched out contemplatively. "No... Not crazzzy. Jussssst open the door, pleasssse... Let me go free, I beg of you."

"I have no reason to let you out, whatever you are, when you won't answer my questions," I reasoned sternly in response to that.

"I am... a tortured sssoul that wantsss... to go home at lassst," it finally replied.

"Then why do you sound like a snake, of all things?" My curiosity knows no bounds.

"It'sss a lisssp, okay?" By the tone it took with me, I had struck a nerve by accident.

"Oh, sorry." It felt so weird to be apologizing to my oven. My cheeks heated up a bit at the embarrassment. "Why are you in the oven?"

"I'm trapped here... Can't find the way out." Whatever it was, its voice sounded like it was gaining strength through our conversation. "If you open the door... I could leave at long lassst. Pleasssse, child, help me...!"

'This is such a bad idea, Cam... Why are you even _considering_ it?' I demanded to know of myself. 'This is stupid-- you don't know what it is or if you can trust it! Don't even think about doing it!'

"I can sssenssse your... hesssitation," the oven ghost commented. The numbers on the display weren't moving anymore, but they were now telling me it was 3:79, which wasn't even a real time. "I assssssure you, I mean no harm. If you help me, I'll... be on my way promptly. You have my word."

'If I die, I will never forgive myself.'

"... Alright, Mr. Tortured Soul," I said with a decisive huff. "Your word had better be sincere, or you'll regret it."

And then my next big mistake hit me in the face like a wall of fast-moving green fire. Oh, wait-- that isn't even a simile. It's legitimately what happened! I opened the door, which released a huge torrent of flames that sent me stumbling until my lower back struck the edge of the counter behind me. A snake, black-scaled and getting bigger as it vacated the confines of its prison, swept its head around until its slitted eyes fixated on me. I could only stare, idiotically slack-jawed and trembling, as it drifted closer to me and looked me over with its calculating, clever gaze. In its eyes I saw not only my terrified reflection, but every single color imaginable.

"Thhhhank you, foolisssssh girl," it said with an obviously mocking tone of voice. "Hmmm... Yessss, it hassss been a while ssssince I lasssst feassssted."

I don't know where I found the ability, but I spoke in a quaking, high-pitched yelp. "F-F- _Feasted_?"

"But... perhapssss not yet," it decided, and started to turn away from me. I could hardly breathe from fear, and sweat was breaking out all across my skin. It was a wonder I hadn't dropped my camera or wet myself.

The creature, with its long and fluid body, took up nearly every inch of floor space in the kitchen and was still coming out of the oven, the door to which was snapped off its hinges and hiding among the bends and folds of scaly sinew. I had to force my gag reflex to relax when I felt the slithering across my shins and bare feet.

"Trapped for _sssso long_ ," the snake, whose green radiance provided plenty of light to see by, began while I could only shake there, frozen by absolute terror, "I have had a lot of time to think thingssss over. Yesssss... But I would need practicccce firssssst."

Its head had been turned away from me, but with amazing speed it was looking straight at me and baring glowing white fangs that were at least longer than my forearm. I could only flinch and shut my eyes as it flew right at me, its mouth open and emitting a hiss that I felt all the way in my core.

That flinch traveled to my right index finger, which was habitually just a teeny touch from taking a picture of whatever my lens happened to be looking at. This time it was looking right at the gigantic snake spirit, and the flash went off right in its eyes. It didn't do much to save me- that, I know because everything went dark a split second later.

Well... not entirely dark. When I opened my eyes, I found myself standing in what looked like a narrow, twisting river that swirled with sparkling colors. The black water only came up to my waist. It was like wading through the most beautiful night sky .

"Where am I?" I asked no one in particular, but when I tried to turn around and look behind me it felt like my feet were anchored in concrete. I couldn't move! Yet when I tried to take a step forward, I found I could. 'Hmm... I can only go forward... But where _am_ I?'

I couldn't deny a tugging sensation in my willpower, urging me to walk ahead. 'But why? What's out there?'

I took another handful of steps and found it wasn't that difficult to move through the inky, glittery water. It was a lot like wading in a river, if the water was lighter and less dense. 'This doesn't make any sense... What happened to me? How did I even get here?'

There it was again! That urge to keep moving forward thrummed through my mind, and before I realized it I had taken three more steps. My fingers trailed lazily in the water at my sides, making even more swirly patterns appear on the surface.

"No, stop," I said suddenly and planted my feet where they were. At least there wasn't much of a current, right? "I don't want to go that way."

 _You must_...

"But why?" I asked the ancient voice that whispered in my ear. "Answer my questions already! What happened to me? Is this a dream? Am I hallucinating?"

_Go forward, on to your next chapter._

"But why?" I asked again. That was my favorite question: why?

_Keep walking. Trust your instincts._

"How about _no_?" I retorted stubbornly. "They're telling me not to listen to you!"

Desperately I looked left and right, but there was only blackness everywhere around me, even up and down. Blackness... and a Polaroid camera.

"My camera!" I gasped, instinctively leaning toward it and stretching out my hand as far as I could. The current was picking up speed and strength, threatening to sweep me off my feet and away from my prized possession. "Wait, I need my camera!"

_Go, now! Do not suffer a terrible fate of your own choosing!_

'I can almost... reach it...!' It was hovering in the darkness near the water's edge; my fingertips were so close to grabbing the neck strap! 'Come on, come on...!'

My next big mistake came a-knocking. I mustered all the strength in my body and focused on jumping to the side, toward my camera. I could make it if I wasn't nabbed by the undercurrent of the glowing, sparkling water.

_You do not know what fate you are resigning yourself to, child._

And I sprang to the side, ignoring the whispered words and latching onto the camera. As soon as I touched it, the river disappeared and only darkness remained in its wake.

_It is done..._

The next thing I knew, a bolt of thunder rattled my world and forced my eyes open. I flew into a sitting position, gasping for breath and frantically looking all around me. 'What a crazy dream... Wait.'

I was outside and sitting on a grassy hill in the middle of a thunderstorm. I still wore the pajamas I'd changed into back home, and my feet were predictably bare. "But... I thought that I was in my kitchen... And what was with that river?"

That prompted me to check over my camera, which looked just fine against all odds. Rather than take a picture, though, I decided to save my expensive and hard-to-find film for a better photo opportunity. 'Now, I gotta find where I am... Is the crazy _ever_ going to stop?'

~

No, apparently it _wasn't_ going to stop.

A city rose up in the distance from where I'd woken up, so I decided to head toward it and look for the police. They could surely help me, right? 'I mean, I was obviously kidnapped. Or drugged. Or nuts from a gas leak. I guess Dad overlooked something when he went to replace that broken part in our oven...'

It took almost a full hour of walking to reach what could have been considered the edge of the actual city, and that was on top of the storm raging against everything in sight-- including me! I was drenched, soaked to the bone in minutes, and the gusty winds weren't helping anything at all. 'My poor camera probably won't work after this...' I thought forlornly even as I vainly tried to protect it by stuffing it under my thin green camisole.

The first store I came across was of the convenience type, but all the lights were out and the doors were locked. No shelter to be had there.

On to the next location. I could tell that I was slowly making my way toward the busier, more populated districts when I saw a few people scattered around with umbrellas over their heads. They were scurrying to get out of the storm, though.

"Hey, can someone help me?" I called out and got absolutely no answer; not even a reaction or a glance in my direction! "Hmph. Must'a been drowned out by the wind and rain...

"Helloooo~!"

"Somebody?"

" _Anybody?_ "

Finally, out of necessity, I mustered up my courage and stepped in front of a woman who was walking a bit more casually than the others, like she didn't exactly mind being outdoors in these conditions. "Excuse me, but could you please help me?" I asked her. "I don't know where--"

She walked right through me.

That's not a metaphor.

_She walked right through me!_

I shrieked and stumbled backward, nearly landing on my butt in a puddle. A hand covered my mouth; the other was busy holding up my camera under my shirt.

"H-H... H-How?" I breathed, my voice quivering fearfully. "That's... That's not _possible_...!"

I whirled around to see her retreating back, and I ran to catch up and stand in front of her again. "Hey, I'm right here! Look at me!"

The same thing happened again, only this time I really did lose my balance and fall on my rear. My Polaroid clattered to the ground in front of me, but I could only stare at it blankly while my mind all but short-circuited in an effort to understand the inconceivable.

"I... I... Oh, God...!" My face went into my palms and the tears followed seconds after, hot against the chilly skin of my cheeks.

'What's going on? Why is this happening to me? Somebody tell me it's all a dream- better yet, _wake me up_!'


	2. Chapter 2

Eventually, after a lot of stumbling in the rain and being completely ignored by everyone I came across, I spotted a narrow alleyway that provided at least a little bit of shelter. I ducked into it, still cradling my camera to my chest, and looked at my new surroundings: some moldy garbage cans, a short stack of flattened boxes, and plenty of miscellaneous trash thrown helter-skelter. My foot collided with a green bottle on my way between the two walls that made up the alley.

"Home, sweet home," I sighed once inside the refrigerator box I'd found propped open and leaned against one wall. At least it wasn't completely falling apart, right? And it kept the rain off of me, which was also a plus...

"Oh, who am I kidding? This is the worst day of my life," I groaned, folding my arms on top of my bent knees and hiding my face in them. "And I'm pretty sure I'm not dreaming... But how can _any_ of this be real?"

I peeked down at the space on my left. My Polaroid sat there, not nearly as scuffed up as I thought it would be after I accidentally dropped it earlier. In fact...

"It's not... wet?" I picked it up and held it in front of my face closely. "It couldn't have dried off already. Well, then again, a woman just walked _through_ me today. Why should this be any weirder?"

'Maybe I oughtta take a picture, just to make sure it's still working.'

With practiced ease, I turned it around so the lens was focused on me and pressed the button. There was a click and a flash, and a second later the image printed right in front of me. I grabbed a paper corner carefully and flapped it around to help the picture form faster.

"There I am, miserable and depressed," I sighed when it cleared. "Didn't even have it in me to smile for the camera..."

'God, I look awful.' Hair stringy and limp, clinging to the edges of my face; a dejected and lost look in my eyes, one that could compete with the haunting expressions in the photos taken to document the suffering of people elsewhere in the world; clothes darkened with rainwater and plastered to my lean frame.

"At least it still works," I mumbled, leaning against the back wall of my cardboard home. With my legs crossed, I set the Polaroid down in my lap and held up the picture with my tired arms. 'Maybe if I rest, I'll wake up for real...'

My decision was made, but it was harder to fall asleep than I would have liked. "You won't collapse on me, will you, hovel?" I asked of the refrigerator box. As expected, I got no reply and the rain continued to pour outside of the alleyway. At least it was so narrow that most of the slanted rain couldn't reach me, save for what dripped from the buildings' eaves. "That's what I thought. Thank you for being here for me, hovel of compressed cardboard."

I didn't have anything else to do, so I leaned my forehead on my knees and closed my eyes as if that alone could shut out the unimaginable world around me. The rain seemed to help me for once, since it lulled me into a restless sleep eventually.

~

When morning came, or when the overcast sky got a little lighter, I finally gave up on trying to sleep and instead stiffly crawled out of my box. The roof had sunk down on me, so the puddle I was inadvertently balancing on my head spilled onto the ground and my leg when I was clear of the shelter. "Agh! _Brrr_... Oh, man, I ache all over. Note to self: don't sleep in a sitting position all night long."

Camera in hand, I crept around spots of broken glass and garbage to reach the entrance of the alley. Save for a few cars speeding past here and there, the streets were deserted at this early hour. 'Great. Now let's--' My stomach rumbled suddenly, sending a dull spike of pain through my abdomen. 'Yeah, let's look for breakfast.'

I didn't have my wallet on me, unfortunately, nor anything I could really use to exchange for money; I discovered that when I riffled through my pockets and found I only had my metal emery board, my iPhone, and half a piece of mint gum that sported a bit of lint stuck on the torn edge. With my circumstances being so unpredictable, I decided to save the gum for later.

"No money, no shoes, no idea what's going on..." A defeated sigh escaped me, and I put the neck strap of my camera on so I wouldn't have to busy my hands with carrying it. "Let's look for a restaurant whose dumpster I can dig through."

'I never thought I would have to do that, honestly. Dumpster diving... I guess I'll see how much "fun" it is pretty soon.'

~

Not. Fun. At. All.

Like with the woman who I tried to talk to, I couldn't touch anything, not even the closed lid of a dumpster. I tried to lift it, but my hands went right through it and I almost lost my balance because I wasn't expecting there to be no resistance. "I can't touch anything at all? But then what am I gonna do?"

The walk to the nearest burger joint, which was— hopefully— ironically named "The Nasty Burger," had sapped more of my strength and served to make my hunger only grow. Again and again I tried to lift the dumpster's lid, but my hands simply passed through it like the whole thing was a mirage.

"Darn it!" I raged, stomping my foot childishly. "I am so _sick_ of this!"

Then an idea came to me: if I was patient, someone was bound to come by and open the dumpster to throw away new trash. Then I could get inside and search for something to eat!

"Wait... What if I can't pick up what I find?" I asked myself aloud; being an only child with busy parents, I had picked up a bad habit of talking to myself, even when other people were around.

'Am I gonna- No, stop that nonsense right there. Don't even think about it. You are going to find food _somewhere_. Stay calm, Camry. _Stay calm_.'

Rather than subject myself to more uncomfortable sitting, I paced back and forth in front of the dumpster for a moment, then decided to just check out the area a little bit to distract myself. Even in my pajamas I was invisible to everyone, so I didn't have to worry about being seen and dubbed a crazy weirdo.

"Well, at least the rain stopped," I commented with a fist on my hip and the other hand held palm up. Maybe the cloud cover would burn away eventually, too. There were a handful of outdoor tables with unoccupied chairs, so I made my way over to the nearest one and sat down.

Strike that. I _tried_ to sit down. I grabbed the back of the chair and predictably couldn't touch it. When I turned around and found one that was already pulled away from the table, I went over to that one and sat, but my butt just phased through it as well, which ended up with me sitting on the ground and a plastic chair seat bisecting my chest.

" _Argh!_ " I yelled to the gray sky. " _Enough_ with this already!"

'I guess they don't seat people who don't have shoes' I thought dryly while getting back to my feet and stuffing my hands in my sweatpants' pockets.

A metallic creaking sound reached my ears and coaxed me to hustle around the corner of the restaurant, where the dumpster was being opened by a bored-looking teen wearing a stained uniform. He tossed a big garbage bag inside, but before I could even try to say anything he let the lid fall closed.

"No, wait, _wait_!" I cried out, running by him and to the rusty container. The employee didn't even flinch when my arm accidentally phased through his on my way by. "Darn it!"

But then it hit me. If I couldn't lift the lid, why not just go inside of it? "I'm such an idiot."

The first step was tentative, but when I pulled my foot back out into the light it was totally fine. Bonzai!

Inside was dark with only a couple of teeny rays peeking through miniature holes between the lid and body. There were two garbage bags sitting there, both tied off at the top, so I reached for the nearest one and reflexively gasped when my hand passed through the stretched plastic.

Of course, I couldn't grab any food no matter how hard I tried. The most infuriating part was that it was all right there in front of me, accessible under any other circumstances, and I still couldn't do a thing to change my situation! My anger boiled close to the surface, especially after such a long string of inexplicable events, and at that point I was ready to scream until I had no voice left.

"No, no, Camry," I coached myself as I backed out of the dumpster and sat down on the hard concrete next to it. "Keep it together. You're better than that. Just find another way."

'But _how_? At this point, it seems impossible!'

There wasn't much else to do but keep walking and exploring the town, so that's exactly what I did. Along the way I caught a few glimpses of billboards situated on rooftops; most of them were advertisements, but one or two were proclaiming that the city of Amity Park was a great, happy place to live.

"Amity Park... That's where I am?" I wondered aloud. 'Never heard of it...'

By then it hardly mattered to me if I walked into people. I just kept my head up and my eyes searching for ideas, wherever they may have been hiding. Nobody raised a fuss when I walked through their chests and out their backsides.

'I always thought it would be cool to phase through walls, but now I see it's not all that it's cracked up to be. Poor Kitty Pryde from X-Men... Did she have to go through this crud, too?'

~

Night two out in the open was spent on a bench in the park, where I gathered up some really old newspapers to use as primitive bedding. The newspapers had to be super old, since the various dates on them were years in the past. The most recent one I found was printed on April 16th, 2007!

"Jeez, these are in really good condition for being, like, eight years old," I commented before spreading out the last one over my legs and curling up to get some shut-eye. The rain storm had passed the city by hours ago, so I didn't think I'd have to worry about being forced to find shelter under a roof. And, actually, the temperature of the evening air was warmer than I would have thought. 

"Amity Park... Never heard of it," I reiterated in a groan. "What state am I even in? Are Mom and Dad wondering where I am?"

Another angry growl emitted from my stomach, and newspaper rustled as I gripped my camisole over the "problem area." Finding food had been less than successful, and the search for a way to drink water also didn't result in ideas. Everything went right through my body like I was made of air, and I had no control over it! It was a miracle I hadn't fallen through the-

"Oof!" The breath left my lungs momentarily when I phased right through the wooden slats and hit the ground beneath it. My makeshift blanket settled above me and became a roof. With nothing left in me but annoyance, answer-less questions, and hunger pains, I rolled onto my back and blankly looked at the front page story peeking between the slats.

'If I'm a ghost, or whatever... Why am I still feeling hunger? Or thirst? Why would I be tired? If I'm undead, fine-- but why does it suck so much more than I imagined?'

Suddenly something caught my eye and I focused on it. 'Does that front page say 'Ghost'?'

Of course I couldn't move the newspaper to read it better, but when I let out an angry huff I found that it made the stack flutter. "Hey... I wonder..."

That's how I discovered that my breath wasn't intangible. It came in handy when I blew the paper onto the ground and kept flipping it until it landed front-side up.

"Ghost Kid: Triumphant Again," I read under my breath, my eyes moving rapidly across the thin paper. "The return of the hunter ghost commonly known as Skulker was met with a brutal retaliation by Amity Park's hometown defender, Danny Phantom. The courageous teenage ghost sent Skulker packing after a brief confrontation at the skating rink and then, as always, disappeared once the dust settled. With that being said, the question on everyone's minds remains: who is this ghost, and why is he defending the people of Amity Park so valiantly?"

A black-and-white photograph accompanied the article, and I was surprised to see a boy with incredibly pale hair flying away from a wrecked building-- most likely the skating rink mentioned in the story. He had some sort of jumpsuit on, and the contrasting color scheme led me to believe it was simply black and white. I couldn't see any legs on him; it looked like they were replaced with a wispy tail of some sort.

"Huh. So it's not really all that weird to be a ghost?" I said quizzically. "Then maybe I can find someone who can help me figure out what's going on..." By the setting sun, I knew all of that would have to wait until the next morning. I resigned myself to sleeping on the ground and was just curling up when another thought hit me like it was a bolt of lightning.

"Wouldn't ghosts come out at night? _Duh_ , of _course_ they would!" I rolled, got to my feet, and sat down on the bench to make my decision. "Alright, then I'll stay up as long as it takes for a ghost to show up. Then I'll finally get some of my questions answered."

"Ow!" I yelled when I suddenly fell through the bench again and landed on my rear. 'I've _got_ to work on this...'


	3. Chapter 3

I made use of the rest of the waning daylight by reading more of the news stories regarding ghosts. It was all in the name of research, and the things I found were by far the most intriguing I had ever learned about.

The pictures told me more than the stories did (I mean, come on: photography nerd right here!). There were better shots of the ghost kid who repeatedly saved the city, and I got a few glimpses of the ghosts he fought as well. I was confident that if I saw him in real life I would recognize him more or less right away.

The sun had to go down, though, and I abandoned the newspapers in favor of wandering the streets a little more. Eventually the stores receded and gave way to lots of brick houses that were pressed close together like sardines in a can. Street lamps switched on, and pedestrian traffic dwindled until I was the only one aimlessly walking the sidewalks. Under the light of one such lamp, I checked for a shadow and found I didn't cast one. 'Man, this blows... I really hope I find someone who can help me sooner rather than later.'

"At least I don't have to worry about getting harassed or mugged like this," I said with a weak smile on my face. It didn't remain for very long. I tried to kick a can that sat on the ground in front of me. No dice. How predictable.

Another hour of wandering passed me by, and though the night wasn't very old I was starting feel like this endeavor was hopeless. Still, I had to stick it out and try my hardest to find a ghost-- almost any would do! 'Just not that one hunter guy I read about. Or the Fright Knight. Or that one weird vampiric guy, Vlad-something. Actually, I have to wonder if there are _any_ ghosts out there that I could get help from.'

I didn't get the chance to wonder for much longer. All of a sudden, a random hiccup racked my torso and caused me to open my mouth out of surprise. A wispy trail of white smoke came out instead of a breath! It wasn't cold enough outside for me to see my breath, so that couldn't have been the explanation. It left behind a strange aftertaste that reminded me of campfires. "Whoa, what was _that_?" 

A shape flew past overhead and turned a corner too quickly for me to get a good look. 'No choice. Better follow it.' But before I could start running, a second one zipped by in a blur of glowing green and the colors black and white. Another one of those wispy hiccups arrived along with his appearance to the scene, too. 'Another one? Ah-ha!' I took off, reaching the corner and peering around it cautiously without revealing myself, just in case.

Up in the sky, two ghosts were fighting with what looked like rays of light they shot from their hands and eyes. 'Wow... That looks really cool' I couldn't help but think to myself as I watched. The first ghost had a tough build and was flying with the help of some sort of jet pack. When he raised an arm to fire back at the second ghost, he shot a missile at him instead of an energy beam.

The missile didn't come close to me, thank goodness, but it still shook the ground and made a huge noise as well as a crater in the middle of the road. 'How are people even still _living_ in this town if this sort of thing is a regular occurrence?'

"You sure are stubborn if your last beat-down didn't tell you to stay outta my town," the second ghost, the one wearing the black and white outfit, said in a peeved tone. With a startled gasp I realized that he was the ghost kid the papers raved about: Danny Phantom!

"If he's supposedly a good guy, then he could probably help me," I said under my breath. "Now the real question is 'how do I talk to him?'"

"What even is your angle this time, Skulker? Out for my head again, or are you being employed by someone this time?" Danny asked during a lull in the exchange of ghostly fire.

"Hunting for sport, I'll have you know, _whelp_ ," Skulker shot back as a compartment on his shoulder opened up and a barrage of missiles were ejected. Danny flew with crazy, random loops and turns to avoid them, and each one either exploded by hitting the ground or being struck by one of his energy rays.

"Dude, I really think you need to get a life already," Danny sighed. "And don't say you want my life, because I've heard that one _way_ too many times before." Something was in his hand- a cylindrical canister of some sort. He pulled the top off and aimed it at hunter ghost. "Now let me get some _sleep_ already!"

A beam of pale blue light shot out of the canister (was it a _Thermos?_ ) and enveloped Skulker before sucking him into the cylinder like a vacuum that ignored the laws of physics.

'Wait, how is _that_ possible?' Then I remembered. 'Well, if ghosts are real then why not disregard physics as well? Jeez... Nothing makes sense anymore!'

"Great," Danny said, relief evident in his tone. "Time to go home... And it looks like tomorrow's gonna be a long day, too."

'Okay, Camry. Go talk to him.'

But my legs wouldn't move. 'Oh, come _on_. Don't chicken out _now_!' I raged at myself, but it was no use. The most I was able to do was take a single step, but I saw some sort of wispy blue breath come from his mouth and he spun around quickly, looking in all directions. I suppressed a yelp and ducked back around the corner, too nervous to speak.

'What am I _doing_? I can't risk not getting help for much longer!' The low, insistent rumble in my stomach confirmed it. 'I've gotta suck it up. Just go out there and _talk_ to him!'

My luck is definitely the worst because when I finally managed to marginally suppress my fear of strangers and step into sight, he was gone. 'He must've flown away... I'm such an _idiot_! Who knows when I'll see another ghost again?'

'And what if it's a ghost like that Skulker guy next time, too?'

A chilly nighttime breeze picked up then and cut right through to my bones with its cold; I could only wrap my arms around myself and hope that I'd find some shelter away from the elements for the rest of the night. 'Gosh, my sweatpants are gross-looking... And just a camisole for a shirt, too. I hate this.

'I hate this a lot.'

~~

The next day greeted me with a pretty sunrise and a cramping midriff, so all in all it was bittersweet. My exploring route took a new and much slower turn as I walked to get away from all the houses and find some other place to poke around. Around nine in the morning- and that was just a guesstimate- I noticed a sign that read "Casper High" permanently and in smaller marquis letters announced the date and time for an upcoming baseball game. Well, it was upcoming as long as the newspaper I read the night before had been printed in the last couple of days, like I suspected.

'A high school... Maybe this won't be a bad place to hang out for a while' I thought optimistically. 'I can try to steal some cafeteria food, too.'

I paused, and a shudder went right through me. "Eugh... _Cafeteria food_..."

The school bell rang shrilly all of a sudden, and a few moments later a class of kids around my age came outside for their gym class. The stereotypical cliques were easy to tell apart from one another. Curious, and with nothing better left to do, I made my way over to watch as they journeyed to the football field and broke into two teams.

"Wow, that was actually kind of useful for once," I commented happily when I effortlessly phased through a chain-link fence that was blocking me from the field. "Cool!"

There was that hiccup-slash-wispy white breath again, coming back to haunt me. "What even _is_ that? It happened last night, too..." I gasped when the probable answer hit me. _"When there were those ghosts around."_

That had to be the reason behind this strange whatchamacallit! Was it a sensor of some sort that told me when a ghost was near? If so, then I could use it to find a ghost and hopefully get some help!

"Alright!" I cheered before taking off into a jog, the football field forgotten. "And at a school called Casper High, too. I'll bet there are lots of ghosts around here; I just have to look for them!

"And what's with the school's name, anyway?" I said to myself. "Are they _trying_ to attract ghosts with a reference like that...?"

~

"I can't _believe_ this!"

This was it. I was at the end of my rope. There hadn't been any other ghosts, and my "ghost sense" as I called it didn't go off even after I checked over almost the entire school. I even went back to the football field in case a repeat happened, but the class had already left for their next class and I hadn't gotten any hiccups.

By then it was lunchtime, which I knew by the kids coming outside with trays and brown paper bags. I took shelter under the shade of a tree that sat near a few picnic tables that a handful of kids flocked to.

It was almost too painful to watch them eat their lunches. I hadn't eaten in roughly two days, nor had I been able to drink anything but some drips of rainwater falling from eaves. I raked my hands through my hair meditatively and closed my eyes to try and block out the idea of fruit, peanut butter and honey sandwiches, juice, soda, carrot sticks--

"I'm going to make myself _sick_ ," I moaned, hunching over my knees and squeezing my eyes shut even tighter. "Not that I'd throw anything up anyway..."

I hiccuped.

Wait.

A hiccup! A ghost was nearby! 'Finally!' I yelled in my head as I struggled to rise to my feet, tried to use the tree as support, and my hand went through it instead. I almost didn't recover my balance before I fell down _inside_ the tree.

'I wonder what that would be like... No, gotta stay focused. Where is the ghost? Outside, somewhere around here?'

All I could see were kids, though. Chatting with one another, milling around, playing games or reading books like normal teenagers.

"This isn't helping," I sighed. I had to stand still for a few seconds before I could take any steps forward thanks to a wave of dizziness that sent my mind reeling. "Ugh... Forget it. If a ghost can see me, then I'll just call out until one hears me."

Omniscient POV~

"I'm not so sure I did so well on that math test, guys," one such teenager eating his lunch commented to his two friends sitting with him.

"Well, it's no wonder. I was tempted to keep track of how many times you yawned," Sam Manson answered before taking a bite of her salad.

"Dude, did you even sleep last night?" Tucker Foley asked with concern.

"Not _nearly_ as much as I should have," Danny Fenton groaned in response. "Skulker came back in the middle of the night. I took care of him pretty quickly, but then I sensed another ghost in the area and spent almost an _hour_ looking for it."

"Did you find it?" Tucker asked.

"No..."

"But why an hour?" Sam pressed. "Why didn't you call it quits sooner?"

"Because it didn't feel like a normal ghost. You know how when I sense a ghost, no matter how strong it is, the feeling is always the same?"

Tucker shrugged and Sam shook her head. "Not really, but okay. Go on."

"Well, this time it was kinda weaker, halfhearted. I can't really explain it so well." Danny sighed and took a bite of his sandwich, chewed and swallowed, before speaking again. "I spent all that time looking because I was curious to know what was up. I didn't see any ghosts, though."

Sam frowned thoughtfully. "That's pretty weird, Danny... And when you sensed Skulker it wasn't any different from usual?"

"Nope. Everything was normal."

" _Helllloo-oo~!_ "

The shout made Danny jump in his seat a bit before he looked around for who was shouting. All he saw were the faces and backs of his peers, though, and none of them were calling out. To make matters worse, his ghost sense went off again and it was weaker, just like that instance the night before.

"If you're a ghost and you can hear me, _please_ come talk to me!"

'What? A ghost?' he thought fearfully. 'What the heck?'

"Danny? You okay?" Tucker inquired slowly while raising an eyebrow at his long-time friend. "What're you looking for?"

"Don't you hear somebody shouting?" he replied, standing to get a better look at the scene. There, by the tree! A girl was walking and yelling at the sky for no apparent reason.

"Er... No?" Sam said and shared a weirded-out look with Tucker.

"Well, I do. I'm gonna go check it out," Danny stated before he made his way over to the teen whom he saw bend over and brace herself with a hand on her knee.

"Ugh... Jeez..." he heard her grumble as he approached.

Curiously, Danny noted the old camera hanging around her neck and the state of her rather out-of-place attire. "Uh, were you calling for a ghost just now?"

Camry's POV~

I started and my head shot up to look right at the boy who had answered my call. "You... can _see_ me?" I said disbelievingly in a scratchy voice. Hardly drinking any water in almost two days was bad for shouting at the top of your lungs, I'd learned.

He raised an eyebrow at me and shrugged his shoulders. "I guess so? What are you doing here in your pa-"

"Oh, my God, so I'm not going crazy!" I exclaimed, interrupting his question by accident. All my joy just couldn't be contained! "You can see me! _Finally_! I swear, I've been _all over_ this town and not a single person has noticed me _at all_!"

I must have surprised him with my ecstatic outburst, but he was gracious enough to more or less awkwardly roll with it. "Uh, I don't really know what to tell you about that... But are you okay? Kinda looks like you rolled out of bed a few minutes ago."

"Yeah, and 'bed' happened to be the outdoors," I agreed before another wave of dizziness sent me down on both knees while I crossed my arms over my agonized stomach. I felt a hand on my shoulder while the boy knelt down in front of me.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

"I haven't... eaten in two days," I ground out. "I can't pick anything up, and everyone just passes right through me. I don't know what to do...!"

"Are you sure? I mean, I'm touching you just fine," he commented.

My eyes widened and stared at his hand on my shoulder. "You're... You're right. Wait-- how are you not going through me?"

"Danny, what's going on over there?" a girl's voice rang out across the picnic area, and we both looked over at the same time to see a girl with dark hair, dark clothes, and dark eyeliner. Another kid with a red beret and some sort of handheld device sat next to her, also looking at us strangely.

Well, they probably were looking at their friend-- did she say his name was Danny?

'Danny... Like the ghost?'

My brain tended to piece things together too quickly to coherently explain at the same time, but I'd gotten a good look at this boy's face, hair and physique, and heard his voice pattern. The reasoning behind it didn't really add up, but I was certain of my suspicions.

' _He's_ Danny Phantom?'


	4. Chapter 4

"Just a sec, Sam!" Danny called back before turning to me again. "Why don't you come sit with us and talk? I've got some food you can have."

I didn't really have the heart to tell him I probably wouldn't be able to pick it up in the first place, but I nodded anyway. "Thanks... I'm Camry, by the way."

"Danny," he said, holding a hand out to help me up. I accepted it and rose shakily, still floored at the fact that he didn't just go right through me. He led me over to his two friends and gestured to me. "This is Camry, guys. Camry, this is Sam and Tucker."

My face fell when they looked at him like he was going nuts. "You making invisible friends now, Danny?" the kid with the beret asked skeptically.

"In a sense..." I muttered gruffly and got no reaction or recognition. "They can't see me, Danny."

"Then why can I?" he asked, frowning in thought.

"Your phantom powers?" I guessed.

"Wait-- h-how did you know about that?" Danny gaped at me incredulously, taken aback.

"Uhm... It was kinda right there in front of me," I replied. "You look a lot like the pictures I saw in the newspapers. And you sound just like him. Well, like _you_."

"Danny? I'm really confused right now. What's going on?" Sam asked slowly, like she was worried he wasn't completely sane. "You didn't get hit on the head last night, did you?"

"No, guys, I'm fine," Danny insisted. "I assure you. For some reason you can't see her. I think she's a ghost."

"We see all the other ghosts you fight just fine," Tucker rebutted. "Why not her?"

"I'm not really sure." Nevertheless, he sat down and motioned for me to do the same.

"It's not gonna work," I sighed, but did it anyway and shut my eyes, bracing myself for impact with the ground.

Nothing happened. I stayed on the bench! "Whoa- what?" I gasped, looking back and forth between my lap and a perplexed Danny. "I didn't fall through!"

"Does that... happen often?" he inquired.

I nodded emphatically. "All the time."

Danny held out his apple to me, and with more hope this time I accepted it. When I didn't drop it I felt like doing a happy dance out of sheer joy. I was going to be okay!

"And now your apple is floating," Sam commented bluntly.

"Now do you believe me?" Danny asked, which earned him nods of assent. "Okay, cool. I still find it kinda hard to believe you two can't see her."

"Maybe we ought'a save this conversation for after school," Tucker advised with a glance at his handheld-- was it one of those old PDAs? "Lunch'll be over pretty soon and you're starting to get weird looks from people, dude."

"Sure, sure. We probably shouldn't go to my house after school, though. Who knows if she'll trip any alarms there."

I couldn't speak with my mouth full of fruit, so I raised a quizzical eyebrow at him. Thankfully, he got the message and answered. "My parents are ghost hunters, and our house is rigged for defense from ghosts."

My mouth was empty by the time he was done explaining. "Except for you?"

"My human side helps keep my powers from being detected."

"Whoa, wait," Sam piped up quickly, but in a low, secretive tone. "Danny, what're you doing telling her about that right off the bat?"

"She already figured it out somehow," he replied under his breath.

"Well, not to say that your cover isn't working, but I sorta knew once I saw you," I said after swallowing one of the few remaining bites of the apple. I wasn't going to let _any_ of the good stuff go to waste after my starvation scare.

"Seriously?"

"Yeah... But I'm pretty perceptive, so don't take it too hard."

The bell rang, signalling the end of the lunch period, and the three of them stood up from the picnic table. "How about you hang out around here until the end of school, and then we'll figure more out later?" Danny suggested to me. "You can have the rest of my lunch if you want it. I'm not really in the mood to eat right now."

"Wow, thanks!" I said brightly. He, Sam, and Tucker began to walk toward the doors leading into the school, but I called out one last thing that made Danny pause and turn.

"And thanks for helping me! I thought I was gonna starve."

"No problem," he replied with a hand raised before he disappeared with his friends inside the school.

Speaking of not starving, I looked back at the food he had left behind and my appetite coursed through me like never before. "Lunch, prepare to be vanquished!"

~~

The final bell sounded around three o' clock that afternoon and released a horde of students that had a familiar air of eagerness to be free. The ghost breath went off to tell me when Danny, Sam, and Tucker were nearby, and a few seconds later I spotted them from my seat on top of a bike rack near the school's entrance. I saw his sensor go off, too, and he waved to me. I waved back with a smile.

"We're going to your place, right, Sam?" Tucker was asking her as they approached.

"Yep. My parents won't be home for at least a couple more hours, so we'll have our privacy," she replied happily.

"And maybe we'll find some answers in one of those scary goth books of yours," he added with a teasing snicker.

"You still hungry?" Danny asked me as the two of them bickered good-naturedly.

I shook my head. "Nope, I'm good. Thanks so much, again."

"It's fine," he said nonchalantly. "We're heading to Sam's house now to try and figure out what's going on with you. Hopefully we can make you, y'know, _tangible_ again."

"That'd be nice," I agreed earnestly. "It kinda stinks not being able to pick up stuff or sit on chairs."

"C'mon, slow poke," Sam called to Danny from her moped. Tucker was starting his up just then. "Let's get out of here."

The only guy who could see me walked to his own scooter and strapped on his helmet while telling me that I could ride on his with him. Being the eternally awkward person- especially around new people- that I am, I held onto his backpack instead of Danny himself as we all "drove" the streets of Amity Park. To my surprise, we ended up in the two-car garage of a huge mansion-like house. 'Sam lives here? Is her family rich?'

She led us up a flight of stairs and into what I assumed was her bedroom. The design was entirely gothic in nearly every way, including the color scheme and decor that seemed to come exclusively in black, purple, or dark red. I loved it, to be perfectly honest.

"Ooh~ Lovin' these new bean bags, Sam," Tucker said after he flopped down on a black seat and sprawled out leisurely.

Sam didn't reply; she was busying herself with looking at the books on one of her numerous tall bookshelves. The amount of literature was enough to leave me dumbstruck for a solid five seconds.

"Need some help with that?" Danny asked as he moved to stand beside her. They reached for the same book at the same time and their hands touched. An intuition bell went off in my head, and its ringing only got louder when they separated their hands rather quickly and looked in opposite directions. My suspicions were all but confirmed when I noticed how their faces were a little pinker than usual.

'They like each other?' I hypothesized. My head quizzically tilted to the side a little bit. 'I ship it.'

Danny and Sam brushed their embarrassment off quickly and resumed their outward personas. "So, what exactly are we looking for?" she asked him.

"Anything about invisible ghosts. Maybe even spirits with weak presences. I'm pretty sure Camry is a ghost of some kind since she keeps setting off my ghost sense, but I've never met one who other people can't see." Danny pulled down a thick tome and thumbed through it, his eyes intently poring over the pages.

With nothing better to do since I couldn't help them look, I wandered around Sam's room and looked at the stuff on her walls. There were a few posters for emo bands that I'd never heard of before, and without any sort of familiarity I got bored of looking at them pretty quickly. Then I found a bulletin board with some reminders and pictures pinned to it.

Most of them were of Sam, Tucker, and Danny all together. Actually, they _all_ were. 'I guess they don't really have that many friends outside of each other. I can relate. But it looks like they have a lot of fun together.'

The photographs reminded me of my camera that hung around my neck and lent me comfort equivalent to a warm bear hug. My hands went to it, and I felt the urge to take a picture of something. I refrained for the fear of seeming weird; I was a guest in this house, and an admittedly odd one at that.

By the time I'd made a round through Sam's room, I had more or less lost interest in what I saw. Not to say her room wasn't interesting, but it was typically rather difficult for things to capture my attention and hold it for long periods of time. That was just how my brain seemed to work more often than not. Not thinking about it, I sat down on the edge of her black bedspread and landed on the floor a split second later, which pulled a surprised squeak out of me.

Danny was looking my way when I got back to my feet and literally stepped out of the bed. "I'm guessing that's what you were talking about before, huh."

"Yep," I sighed, rubbing my tailbone to try and dispel its aching. He went back to his book, finished skimming it, and picked up another.

Sam's makeup was gathered on top of a vanity with an oval-shaped mirror in a hauntingly ornate metal frame. I hadn't really looked over there yet, so I walked over and peered at the brands of eyeliner and lipstick she used. For some reason, none of them looked familiar.

" _Whoa!_ " Tucker suddenly exclaimed.

I jumped at the sound of his loud voice and ended up seeing myself in the mirror. " _Ah!_ "

"What, what?" Danny asked quickly, looking between his best friend and me. I only knew that because I could see him in the mirror from where I stood.

"I _see_ her!" Tucker said, stabbing a finger at the vanity.

"Why the heck do I look like a _photo negative_?" I said at the same time, peering closer at my ghoulish appearance. Thanks to the properties of a negative color scheme, my blonde hair was now weird shades of pale blue, my scleras were black instead of white, and my dark blue eyes had been shifted to a light, fiery orange. That also meant that my teeth were black, my skin was a scary greyish-blue, and any shadow on me was now a bright white highlight. "Ew!"

"Oh my gosh," Sam whispered as she carried her open book to the mirror and peered at my reflection closely. "That's _spooky_. Why can we see your reflection but not you yourself?"

"And why's she all freaky-looking, too?" Tucker chimed in.

"I have no idea what you guys are talking about," Danny stated from where he hadn't moved yet.

"You don't see this?" Sam and I asked him in unison, though I pointed at my mirror image.

"No, I just see normal reflections of you two," he answered.

"Wait... You can see me normally, but _they_ can't," I said. It was difficult to talk when only he could hear me and Sam and Tucker didn't know they were interrupting me.

"I'm gonna look for something about photo negatives," Sam stated.

"I'll check out the Internet for any clues, too," Tucker offered.

"Okay, and what were you saying, Camry?" Danny asked me.

"You see and hear me without any trouble because of your ghost powers, right?" I began, and he nodded. "But they don't have any ghost powers. I'll bet that, whatever I am right now, they can only see my reflection, and it's warped because I'm not entirely here to them."

"That makes a lot of sense, actually," Danny agreed. "I wonder if there's anyone who would know the answer to this..."

"I think I got something!" Tucker announced. Sam, Danny, and I flocked to stand behind him and read what his device had found. "It's just a theory, but it's about how a ghost is initially made. Looks like you need two things: a human consciousness, and ectoplasmic energy. When you put the two together, you have a tangible ghost. Otherwise, without enough of the energy, you just have the consciousness, and that... fades away with time," he summarized, ending on an awkward note.

I stared at the PDA, at the words "fades away" over and over again.

It all made sense.

But was that what I really was now? A post-human consciousness without a real physical form?

And was I going to just wither away?


	5. Chapter 5

We didn't have the time to ponder this new theory for long. I hiccuped, and a wisp of white smoke darted out of my mouth. "Uh... That wasn't you, was it, Danny?" 

"But I'm already right here," he started to say, and then gasped when his own blue ghost sense went off. "Oh, no. Who is it _this_ time?"

I got to see his transformation into Danny Phantom for the first time, and needless to say it was really cool. A ring of white light surrounded him, split in two, and traveled in opposite directions, changing him as it progressed. His black hair turned white, his blue eyes turned green, and he suddenly wore the outfit I'd seen him in the night before.

"Be right back, guys. Don't wait up for me," he said before taking off through the air and phasing through the ceiling of Sam's second-story bedroom.

"That was cool," I commented evenly, and then realized what it meant since he was gone. "Aw, _man_! Now no one here can see me!"

'Except with the mirror' I remembered, and walked back to look at my reflection again. It was creepy, but in the way that made you want to just keep looking at it. I was staring into my orange eyes when Sam came up beside me and cleared her throat.

"Hey, I'm sure you're not gonna fade away, Camry. It's just a theory, right?"

"I hope so," I replied even though she couldn't hear me. Maybe she could read lips. I signed "Thank you" to her as well for good measure.

It was easy to tell she was struggling to find something to say, so I wasn't surprised when her eyes found the photo negative reflection of my Polaroid and she commented on it. "Why do you have a camera with you?"

Thank goodness one of my friends knew sign language and had taught me a couple of words and phrases. Of course, I had to improvise a little bit. First, I made a pinching motion with my thumb and middle finger over my heart and drew it outward away from my chest, which meant "I like," and then pantomimed snapping a picture of something. Sam seemed to understand because she nodded and added approvingly, "That's a pretty nice camera."

I nodded with a smile and made the "I like" motion again.

"Looks like it's Skulker again," Tucker reported from his place at one of the gothic windows overlooking the street outside. He had the black curtains pulled aside to reveal flashes of glowing figures flying by every few seconds.

"Again? But he was just here," Sam said suspiciously, her eyebrows drawn closer together while she frowned. "This isn't some sort of new hunting tactic, is it?"

I was next to Tucker in a second to watch the fight unfold in the air. Like before, Skulker was using inorganic weapons like ray guns to fight Danny, who was using energy beams he produced from his hands. 'This is so weird to watch... I wonder how he does that.'

Questions like that would have to wait because he was currently preoccupied with both getting his butt kicked and kicking butt. "He sure can take a punch," I commented partially to Tucker, but then I remembered he couldn't hear me and I fell silent. 'I guess I've gotten used to talking to people again. Huh... Oh well. At least things are gonna be alright now.

'I hope. First I have to make sure I'm not fading away like that theory said.'

Omniscient POV~

"Dude, I swear, you have _got_ to chill _out_!" Danny raged to a rather pleased-looking Skulker whose heavy boot was pressing Danny into the street's cracked pavement.

"I have to do no such thing, Whelp," Skulker replied just in time for Danny to go intangible and phase into the ground, thereby freeing himself from being pinned. Before he could find him again, Skulker got a ray in the back that sent him sprawling down the length of the road. " _Aargh_!"

"For the last time: _get out of my town_!" Danny shouted angrily as power fueled by anger built between his hands and formed a ball of sparking green energy, which he hurled at Skulker. It hit its mark, but when the dust cleared he wasn't on the ground anymore. Danny watched him fly off and glared at his retreating figure.

"I sure hope he got the message, _finally_ ," he grumbled under his breath before turning invisible and flying back into Sam's room down the street. He changed back into his human form and popped his back tiredly, not worn out so much as just annoyed. "At least that's taken care of."

"What's with him coming after you so much all of a sudden?" Sam asked with her arms folded over her chest.

"I wish I knew," Danny replied peevishly. "All I know is he's getting stupidly persistent and that it's driving me _nuts_."

"He's gotta get tired of it eventually, right?" Tucker suggested hopefully. "Maybe he'll get distracted and go hunt something else for a change."

"Let's hope," he answered before picking up the book he'd been searching through earlier. "Tuck, what were the details of that one theory you found?"

She didn't want to make her feelings obvious, but Camry's face fell when she was reminded of her possible fate. 'Fading away? Pfft, like I'd let _that_ happen. But... what if...?'

~

Camry's POV~

We didn't find anything of real substance that day, nor did we get all that much closer to figuring what happened to me. I did discover that it wasn't 2015 here, though, and it sort of blew my mind.

"Wait— it's _2007_?" I gasped, staring at Danny when he told me the day's date. It had been bugging me in the back of my mind, but when I thought to ask I wasn't really prepared for the answer. " _How_? How is that possible?"

"What're you talking about?" he replied, looking totally confused.

"Dude, I'm from the year _2015_ ," I explained while pulling my iPhone out of my sweatpants pocket and showing it to him. Thank all the goodness in the world that it hadn't been damaged by the rain or my nights spent outdoors. "I was wondering what was up with all the outdated technology, too... I guess this explains that.

"But _man_ , you guys have some Internet storms to suffer through," I continued in a ramble. "Whoa— I just realized! You guys haven't even had a black president yet!"

"Slow down a little, Camry," he advised me carefully. "Now you're telling me you're from the _future_?"

"Yeah, I'll prove it," I challenged while turning on my iPhone. I pointed to the date that was in smaller letters beneath the time on the lock screen. "See that? It says July 8th, 2015."

Danny took the phone out of my hand— and I let him— and swiped right like the onscreen instructions said. His blue eyes widened as all my apps came into view. "Wow, I've never seen anything like this before."

I crossed one leg over the other where I sat on the edge of his bed. Yes, we had decided that I couldn't go anywhere except with him for two main reasons: one, no one else could see me, and two, for some reason I didn't have intangibility troubles while I was around him. We couldn't quite place an explanation behind that dilemma yet, but we probably would in time. My money was on his ghost powers.

"That's because it hasn't been invented yet."

"So, if you're from the future, how old are you?" Danny asked me.

"Fifteen," I responded evenly. "You?"

"Fourteen. And if it's 2015 for you, then you were born in 2000... Which means I'm actually twice your age, haha!"

"Wha— that's not how it works," I rebutted, but a little bit of a smile was muscling its way through to the surface of my face.

"Why not? You'd be seven years old right now," he laughed, handing back my phone. "Oh, man, that is too funny!"

"Well, _I'm_ still fifteen," I pointed out triumphantly, "which actually makes me older than you. Hey, do you think clothes would disappear if I tried them on?"

"That was random," he commented. "Are you implying that you don't want to wear what you've got on?"

"... Darn it, you figured me out." I sighed mirthfully. "I mean, camisoles are great and all, but I've been wearing this for two days straight now. I probably stink."

"If it's any consolation, I don't smell anything," Danny offered. "How about I go raid my sister's closet instead?" He held his hand up, palm down, and gauged my height against an imaginary person who was taller than he was. "You're kinda short compared to Jazz, though."

"A clean shirt would be fine," I said while awkwardly stuffing my hands in my pockets, my iPhone clutched in one. "Oh, but I thought you said I would set off some sort of alarm if I came here. Why didn't that happen?"

"Maybe 'cause you're not entirely a ghost?" he hypothesized on his way to the door. "Be right back."

He left, and I couldn't help but ponder that idea. "Not entirely a ghost... I'm in a new time, where only ghosts can see me— and ghosts are _real_ here. That's so weird. Okay. Retrace steps... One in the morning, middle of summer, I'm goofing off on Tumblr. I hear a noise downstairs, I grab my camera and go into the kitchen. Then... Then what? Why can't I remember?"

When Danny came back I was still trying to recall what exactly happened to me on the night that started all of this craziness. "Uh, what's the matter, Camry?"

"I'm trying to remember why I ended up this way... But all I'm getting is the feeling that I left my oven on. And that's ridiculous 'cause I suck at baking."

That made him snicker a little bit as he handed me a bundle of turquoise cloth that looked and felt like more than just a shirt. "Here, I found an old sweatshirt of Jazz's in the back of her closet."

"Cool, it'll match," I said as I slipped it on over my head and fixed the rumpled hem. It didn't even smell that musty. "Thanks, Danny."

"Sure," he said easily. "You know, I realized something a second ago. There's a ghost we can go see in the Ghost Zone; his name is Clockwork. I'll bet he'd know why you're in this time and could give us some answers."

"The Ghost Zone?" I repeated, raising a confused eyebrow.

"Oh, right, you don't know. So, it's this place where—"

"Danny? Are you talking to yourself in there?"

The newcomer sounded like a teenage girl— was this Jazz? She pushed open the door and peered in curiously only to stare in shock when her eyes landed on me. "Why is that sweatshirt _floating_?"

"I guess that answers _that_ question," I said with a little sigh.

"No, Jazz, I'm not talking to myself," Danny said to his sister after he quickly motioned for her to come in. She closed the door after herself for good measure. "Look, there's this kinda weird situation going on right now. This is Camry." I lifted a hand and waved to her, and she must have seen the sleeve move because she waved back with a stunned expression on her face. "She's sort of invisible to everyone except me."

"Why?" Jazz asked him. "Because of your ghost powers?"

"That's what I figured," he answered. "But right now we're trying to find out what's wrong with her and why she's stuck this way. Camry, show her the mirror thing."

"But that looks so creepy," I protested. "I don't wanna freak her out."

"It won't," Danny assured me. "Look, Jazz, I can prove she's here."

I rolled my eyes a little bit and backed up until I was standing in front of the mirror on Danny's dresser. It didn't really surprise me when the borrowed sweatshirt didn't become a photo negative like the rest of me did. Jazz gasped and peered closer at my reflection, her eyes big and round with amazement.

"Wow, that's... actually kind of cool," she admitted. "So... Hi, Camry. I'm Jazz, Danny's older sister."

It was no use talking out loud, so it sufficed to just wave again and smile in the mirror.

"So you just went through my closet?" Jazz said unhappily as she turned on her little brother. "Danny, that is so uncool!"

"Hey, it was for a good cause," Danny replied defensively while folding his arms over his chest.

"Jeez. How many times have I told you to stay out of my room?"

"Jazz, let it go," he groaned. "She needed a shirt, and it made sense to get one of your old ones."

Maybe it was time to intervene before a sibling argument fully broke out. 'I'm a little bit glad I don't have any brothers or sisters...'

"Uh, you were telling me about something," I piped up. "A 'Ghost Zone?'"

"Oh, right," he remembered, which brought him out of any impending spat. "It's where all the ghosts live inside a sort of alternate reality. It's pretty cool, actually."

"The Ghost Zone?" Jazz asked him. Right, she didn't know I had asked him to explain that. Man, this 'not being heard by everyone' was really starting to get old. "Do you need to go there, for some reason?"

"To see Clockwork," Danny explained. "Look, it's a really long story, Jazz, and I have homework to endure." For emphasis he jabbed a thumb over his shoulder and at his backpack lying next to his bed.

"Using homework as an excuse is _definitely_ not suspicious," Jazz observed skeptically. "But fine, I'll leave you alone. And Camry, it's alright if you wear my sweatshirt, but make sure you take it off if our parents come in. If they see it floating there, they'll go into full hunter mode."

I nodded, still in front of the mirror, and gave her the "OK" sign.

"Oh, man. Didn't think of that," Danny admitted when Jazz had left the room.

"I'm actually kinda surprised that everyone has been pretty accepting of me so far," I said, sitting down crisscross-style on his bed again. "It's been weird having me around; I can tell."

"Well, maybe not _weird_..." he said carefully, like he wasn't sure if he might hurt my feelings for whatever reason.

"Oh, come on, it's been totally weird," I laughed. "And you even said it was weird to Jazz earlier. It's okay, I get it. Weird's not really all that foreign for me."

"Why do you say that?" Danny asked as he picked up his backpack and walked it over to a worktable to begin his homework.

"Well, my name's _Camry_ and I always have a camera with me; it's like I was doomed from the very beginning to be weird. My school's sort of pegged me as an outsider, though it's not like people are expressly mean to me." I smiled a casual half-smile to show I wasn't bothered by the fact. "Now all of _this_ hits me like a freakin' freight train and I've gotta worry about fading away."

"I'm sure that's not what's gonna happen," Danny said quickly.

"Aw, look at you, making up crap for me," I said in a touched, babyish voice. "We don't know that for sure."

"I know that, but when we go see Clockwork later I'm sure he can give us answers," he insisted. "We'll figure it out, Camry. I promise."

"I wouldn't make promises just yet, Danny," I said solemnly under my breath. I don't think he heard me.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much, The_Traveller, for leaving this story's first comments and kudos! This chapter's dedicated to you! :D

Night fell peacefully on Amity Park and the Fentonworks that evening, with a beautiful sunset to boot. Camry made sure to get a snapshot of it from the vantage point of Jazz's bedroom window.

"I know I can't see you except with the mirror, but it makes the most sense for you to sleep in my room instead of Danny's," Jazz said while she got dressed for bed with her back turned to Camry.

Camry picked up the white board and dry erase marker Danny had retrieved from their parents' lab earlier, and she wrote a quick message saying, "It's fine, I don't really mind." It was the most effective way to talk to Jazz, who couldn't hear her at all.

Jazz had a vanity much like Sam's, though the one here was much less fitting for the gothic theme. The mirror had been angled to reflect more of the room, which gave Jazz a better range to see Camry's photo negative image.

"So, why did all of this happen to you?" Jazz asked curiously when she was finished and could sit down with her legs crossed on her bed.

Camry frowned as she wrote with the blue marker: " _Can't remember_."

"You can't? You lost your memory?" Jazz reiterated with surprise. "That's terrible!"

" _I've tried to remember_ ," Camry scribbled quickly. " _Just can't. It sucks_."

"Well, maybe I can help," Jazz offered optimistically. "I want to study psychology when I go to college, after all."

" _Psychology is so awesome_ ," the invisible girl agreed in writing while beaming toward the mirror. " _If you wanna try, I guess it's worth a shot_."

"Okay, okay. Hmm... Why don't you try to retrace your steps up until when you can't remember anything," Jazz suggested.

" _Tried it. No dice_ ," Camry replied sadly. " _Just a blur after hearing a noise downstairs_."

"You heard a noise? What kind of noise?" she pressed. "Try to think _really_ hard."

Camry closed her eyes, thinking in the back of her mind that it was probably hopeless, and tried to relive that night when all of her problems began. Again, she was preparing to work on shortening her nails while she surfed the Web, and a sort of banging thump resonated from downstairs. The kitchen, wasn't it? 'It still feels like I left my oven on...' After almost a full minute of just sheer concentration, Camry had to give up and write out on the board, " _Sorry, still can't remember_."

"I'm sorry you can't remember," Jazz said honestly. "Maybe it'll come back with time. Well, let's go to sleep, and I'm sure tomorrow Danny will take you to the ghost he mentioned earlier. What was his name...?"

" _Clockwork_ ," Camry recalled easily. 'Wow, I can remember that with no trouble, but I can't remember how I got to be like this? What a _great_ time for selective memory problems...'

"I hope he can help you, Camry." Jazz offered her a sincere smile, which she returned with gratitude.

" _Thanks, Jazz_ ," she wrote back. " _You can call me Cam if you want, though. Most people do_."

Camry's POV~

I'd felt tempted to write "My friends do," instead of "Most people," but I didn't have many of those back home and it was more honest this way. True, I had a best friend and she was really the only friend I needed in the world, but still... Being seen as the class weirdo and not real friend material by almost everyone my age kind of hurt.

"Cool," Jazz replied before sliding under her covers and getting comfortable. I was on the floor beside her bed and using some spare blankets and pillows for my own sleeping space. After two nights of sleeping outside in the cold, this was absolute bliss. And she had a throw rug on her floor, so my "mattress" wasn't just hardwood. "Are you ready?"

" _Yep_ ," I wrote, and then used the sleeve of her sweatshirt to rub it out once she'd seen it. The light next to her bed was clicked off, leaving weak moonlight to replace it, and I laid down with my arms pressed close to my chest. My eyes drifted shut, but as usual it took a few more minutes for my brain to turn off for the night.

I still had so many unanswered questions, and now even more new ones were joining the old ones! Most of them regarded Danny and his powers, as well as the other ghosts haunting this town. He'd given me an abridged explanation of his "origin story" on our trip from Sam's house, but my curiosity wasn't anywhere close to being satisfied.

'Tomorrow, Cam. You'll get answers tomorrow' I told myself to make my mind simmer down. 'Until then, just get some rest.'

Omniscient POV~

Little did the residents of the Fentonworks know that someone was watching their house at that very moment. His scanners indicated that there wasn't just one but _two_ ectoplasmic energy signatures inside, which piqued his curiosity to the point where he simply had to investigate. Each was sleeping in a separate room, and Skulker chose the room he knew belonged to the Ghost Child's older sister.

He used his intangibility to look through the wall that faced the street. There they were: the human girl sleeping in her bed and the source of the weaker ghostly signature curled up on the floor between the bed and the window. Skulker watched with interest as her body twitched with a strong hiccup and a wisp of grey smoke left her mouth.

"A _spirette_?" he said to himself. "I haven't seen one of those at such an early stage in _decades_. What a rare find, indeed.

"Well, I was planning on hunting the Ghost Child, but..." He trailed off with a wicked grin on his face as he aimed his arm at the girl and prepared to fire a net over her. Being a much smaller ghost inside of a suit of armor, Skulker didn't really register the hands around his neck until he was being pulled out of the wall and sent careening across the street, though he recovered in time to remain airborne.

"Skulker, I have _had_ it with your constant attacks," Danny Phantom stated furiously where he floated with both fists clenched at his sides. "But now you've crossed the line. Planning on using Jazz as bait or something? That's the only reason I could think of to explain what you want in her room."

"Really? That's the _only_ one?" Skulker said rhetorically. "Not even the spirette sleeping in there?"

"Spirette? You mean Camry?" Danny replied and raised an eyebrow at the unfamiliar term. "What does that even mean?"

"I suppose you wouldn't know, being only half-ghost. I won't waste time to explain it to you now, though." Skulker threw his arm up and fired a laser beam that struck Danny in the sternum and sent him reeling back a handful of feet.

In Danny's moment of broken concentration, Skulker seized his chance and grabbed the boy by his throat. "But now I've got two trophies to look forward to hunting."

~

"Trophy? I don't think you'd want me sitting on your shelf and gathering dust," Danny quipped after he managed to beat Skulker into retreating. He couldn't help but yawn wide and blink a number of times as he floated back into his room and changed into his human form when his feet touched the floor.

Suddenly the doorknob turned and he reflexively leaped under his sheets to feign sleep. The act was unnecessary, as he found out when the 'intruder' said in her quiet voice, "Danny? Are you okay?"

"Huh?" he responded as he sat up. "Oh, yeah, Camry. I'm fine. Did the fight wake you up?"

"Yes and no," she answered, shutting the door behind her. "I sensed him in my sleep; that's what woke me up, but not until after you pulled him out of the room. But... I heard him say something about me, and I wanted to ask you what you knew about it."

"Honestly, I didn't really understand any of that stuff he said regarding you," Danny said, shrugging and keeping his voice down to avoid attracting any parental attention. "I've never heard of a "spirette" before, and I don't really know why he wants to hunt you now. Uh, you knew about that part already, right?" It occurred to him a second too late that such frightening knowledge might really freak her out.

Camry nodded, her short blonde hair looking paler and almost metallic in the dim moonlight shining through the closed window. "I did. I'm guessing you get that a lot from him."

"More than you can imagine," he sighed.

"Uhm, I had a thought, also," Camry said. "About why he keeps coming back."

"Oh yeah?" Despite his tiredness, Danny managed to look almost as interested as he actually was.

"I tend to go on weird little hunts on the Internet when I want to learn more about random stuff, y'know?" she started almost awkwardly. "And there was this one thing I saw on Tumblr— it's a really weird website— that said how one ancient hunting technique involved relentlessly chasing after your prey until it became too tired and weak to run away from you. I'm pretty sure it's called "persistence hunting," and I think that's what Skulker is trying to do to you, in a way."

"It would explain why he won't stop-- _yaaaawn_ \-- coming after me," Danny agreed.

"You're really tired," Camry noted. "I'll go let you sleep now."

"Wait just a second," he said quickly, making her halt her progress out the door. He got up and went over to his backpack, which he rifled through until he found what he was looking for: a Fenton Wrist-Ray. "I think you should probably have one of these if Skulker's interested in you now. Since you can't defend yourself with powers like I can, this is about all I can offer you, but hopefully it'll be enough."

"O-Oh, thanks, Danny," Camry said sincerely as she accepted the weapon and looked it over in the dim light. "Not really sure how to react to this. Gonna roll with it. You'll have to show me how it works tomorrow."

"Sure thing."

"And I think my ghost sense is more sensitive than yours because I keep getting the warnings before you do. I'll let you know as soon as I can if Skulker comes back."

Danny had to smirk at the offer since he was the one with _actual_ experience. "Okay, that's great. G'night."

"Night," Camry responded with a short wave as she left the room and closed the door as quietly as she could behind her. With the Wrist-Ray in hand, she returned to Jazz's room and lay back down in her spot on the throw rug.

"Man, talk about a rude awakening," she mumbled before closing her eyes and falling back asleep a moment later. 'I wonder what a "spirette" is...'

~~

Morning came far too early for the two ghostly inhabitants when they were woken up almost simultaneously by different-colored hiccups around five-thirty in the morning. Too groggy with sleep to quite comprehend the world around her, Camry didn't notice that the color of her ghost sense had switched to a smokey blue-grey as she struggled to sit up on the floor.

"Uuugh... Wait!" she remembered, and shot up to her feet and to the door. By the time she reached Danny's room, he was already awake and had shifted into his ghost form.

Luckily, Camry had had enough fog cleared from her brain to remember to grab her only weapon against ghosts. She strapped on the Wrist-Ray and quickly found the on and safety buttons.

"Is he back?" Cam asked, and then had to suppress a huge yawn right after.

"I think so," Danny groaned as he floated above his bed, his legs replaced by a tapering black tail. "Stay here, okay?"

She nodded, which freed him up to fly through the ceiling and search for the intruder. His head turned left and right, but the early morning skies were clear and only slightly lighter than they were at midnight. Rather than waste time, he darted back inside and alighted on the floor of his bedroom.

"What about those alarms you warned me about before?" Camry asked him quickly. She was holding her right arm out straight and bracing it with her other hand, but it seemed like her preparedness was unnecessary. Was it a false alarm?

"Good idea," Danny yawned. "Oh, man, I am so tired... I'll go turn on the ghost shield."

He did, and Camry was surprised and fascinated to see a green dome of light encase the entire Fentonworks structure shortly after. "Wow... That's some rad tech."

"It keeps the ghosts out," Danny replied to that before shifting back and stretching his arms over his head. He let out another yawn and blinked slowly multiple times. "I hate to say it, but I think Skulker's plan is starting to work."

"Well, there's gotta be something we can do to make him stop," Camry tried optimistically. She hid a yawn behind her hand, but Danny still caught and mirrored it.

"There's the Thermos, but I get the feeling he'll just come back a little while later," he said, irritated, and then slumped onto his bed and closed his eyes. "Figure it out... later..." And he was snoring.

'I shouldn't wake him up' Camry decided as she backed out of his room and closed the door softly behind herself. In the dim hallway she slipped off the Wrist-Ray and powered it down, content with the fact that she was safe within the ghost shield.

Too bad that "fact" wasn't as true as she would have liked to believe.

Knowing this particular prey wasn't going to be difficult to catch when alone, Skulker decided to forgo any noisy traps or surprises for this capture. He floated up silently behind Camry, then covered her mouth and grabbed her around the torso to pin her arms down. She kicked and writhed, all the while yelling angry curses that no child should ever repeat, but it was useless against his inhuman strength.

"Keep struggling, prey, and I won't be as merciful as I could be," he threatened quietly. Without a moment to lose he zipped intangibly through the floors and carried Camry down with him.

The large room they ended up in was illuminated by a huge green light that swirled around and around within the confines of its hazard-marked perimeter. Skulker stalked toward it, as if he was aiming to go into the weird light-- and Camry knew in that moment that she did _not_ want to go.

She still held the Wrist-Ray in one hand, as luck would have it. 'Please be the on switch' she mentally pleaded as her finger found what felt like a button and she twisted the device around so the business end was pointing toward her captor. Closing her blue eyes tight, she pressed the button.

Suddenly Camry was free-falling and landing on her rear. It worked! Skulker was busy covering his eyes with both hands, and he was distracted enough to even be reeling back from the surprising blow. "Phew," she whispered with relief before aiming her only hope at the hunter. "Okay, Skulker. Don't make me use this again."

"Child, I am the Ghost Zone's greatest hunter," he declared angrily while clenching his fists. Apparently the shock had worn off; so much for the element of surprise. "No prey that I hunt can get away from me."

"That's too bad, because I have no intention of going anywhere with you," Camry snapped. "You can't make me, either."

"You really think you can defend yourself from _me_?" Skulker chortled.

To his confusion, her stern frown morphed into a confident smirk. "Maybe not, but I know someone who can."

ZAP! A beam of green energy nailed him square in the back and sent him hurtling toward the green portal. Camry wisely sidestepped and decided to shoot a couple angry energy beams of her own after Skulker, which sent him through the entrance and out of sight. Danny wearily hovered over to the right side of the portal and pressed a button that closed the yellow and black-striped doors.

"Are you okay?" Danny asked as she was about to thank him for arriving in the nick of time.

"Oh, yeah, I'm fine," Camry answered. "He was in the house the whole time, apparently. I-I'm glad you woke up."

"I heard the Wrist-Ray fire," he explained, dropping down to the floor and changing into Danny Fenton again. "I think we've bought ourselves at least a few hours of safety with him in the Ghost Zone. I'm going back to bed."

"That was the Ghost Zone?" Camry wondered aloud as she walked up to the closed doors and put a hand flat against them. "It looked really... green. Why is tha--?" she started to ask before she turned and realized that Danny had made good on his word.

"Yeah... Still tired..." she had to admit to herself as she climbed the stairs leading out of the lab. "Better go... nap... for a little bit..."


	7. Chapter 7

The next day was a Saturday, as luck would have it, which meant Danny, Sam, and Tucker didn't have school to get in the way of our "mission." When I awoke from my nap, which was really all it was when it lasted just over two hours, I sat up slowly on Jazz's bedroom floor and stretched my arms high over my head.

"Oh, man..." I murmured after yawning noisily. "Stiff neck, ouch..."

Jazz must have woken up before me because her bed was empty and neatly made. It brought to mind the messy state of Danny's room, and I yawned again. 'Definitely says a lot about their personalities... I wonder when we're gonna go into the Ghost Zone, like he mentioned before.'

That made me think about what had happened just a couple of hours prior. It felt like a lot longer, so it was weird to realize I had nearly been kidnapped— ghost-napped?— so recently. A serious frown settled on my lips. 'If Skulker wanted to take me there, do I really want to go to that place? What if it's not safe for me? I think I heard something about me being rare, too. If I go to the Ghost Zone, will I be targeted by other ghosts as well? Oh, no...'

I wanted to be confident, to be able to easily tell myself that I had little to worry about. It was just a silly wish, though, because I doubted that would ever happen. Sitting on the floor, with my arms wrapped around my knees and my breathing shallow and erratic, I struggled to fight off the same sort of panic and anxiety I was cursed to constantly deal with.

'Calm down, Camry. Calm down. _Calm. Down._ This is a terrible place and time to break down. You have to be strong, if just for a little while longer. Danny is going to help you, and then things may be able to go back to the way they were before. Or maybe this is all just a really long, really detailed and vivid dream. Yeah, maybe that's true. Wouldn't that be nice? To be back home, sleeping in your own bed and not on the floor, looking forward to going camping with Mom and Dad and Saoirse and her family—'

"Camry?" Jazz whispered when she came back into her room. She walked to her vanity and used the mirror to see me, so I had to smile and act like nothing was wrong. "Danny's up, and I think he wants to leave soon. Sam and Tucker are on their way."

I nodded, then gave her a thumbs-up for good measure. 'Jazz is nice... It would be cool if we could actually talk to each other. I bet we'd have the best conversations.'

Still, there was work to be done. I stood up and adjusted the hem of the sweatshirt, preparing to walk out the door, when Jazz stopped me by grabbing a sleeve. "Don't go out there with this on," she said quickly in a hushed tone. "I'll put it on and give it to you down in the lab."

I couldn't argue with that logic, so I slid out of the jacket and handed it to her. The air was chillier outside of the sweatshirt, and I hugged myself for both warmth and comfort. Now that it was the beginning of my third day away from my home and family, and I was starting to feel the negative effects of being separated from them so suddenly.

'I just have to make it through until we find someone who can give us answers. Hopefully this Clockwork guy can help me. I want to go home so badly...'

~

It was a miracle I didn't get caught by Danny's renowned ghost-hunting parents with all of their technology and expertise. I didn't wear Jazz's sweatshirt, which was a good start, but every time I saw either of them I would instinctively hold my breath and stand perfectly still no matter what.

"I don't think you needed to act like a statue whenever they walked by you," Danny said to me when we finally made it downstairs and into the subterranean lab. "They didn't notice anything."

"S-Still makes me nervous," I replied absentmindedly while looking at some of the equipment laid out on the worktables. Some of the jars were filled with luminescent green goop that I wasn't sure I wanted to know the identity or origin of.

Sam and Tucker were supposed to be arriving shortly, so Danny walked to the control panel of the Ghost Zone's portal and pressed a button. The doors retreated inside the walls and revealed that swirling green world that I was both intrigued by and afraid of.

"Uhm..." I murmured, unsure of what to say or if I should even say anything. He didn't hear me and went on with his business of prepping a vehicle he called the Specter Speeder. I wanted to explore that, but the Ghost Zone had captured my attention for the time being. On quiet, hesitant feet I took a couple of steps toward it, and I gently bit my lower lip in thought.

'Skulker wanted to take me to this place last night... I should ask Danny what's in there.'

Just as my mind was made up to ask, fate threw a curve-ball at me in the form of Sam and Tucker's arrival. Suddenly Danny was busy talking to them about something I couldn't relate to, and I knew it would have been _terrible_ if I interrupted their conversation. Instead I stood there, looking between the portal and the only people who had somewhat befriended me, though in rather unorthodox circumstances.

"... know the way to Clockwork's tower, right, dude?" Tucker was saying when I tuned into their conversation from my spot a fair distance away.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure I marked it on the map," Danny replied, though he didn't sound entirely certain. "I'm sure it's not that hard to find, anyway."

"He's the master of time, Danny; I'm pretty sure it's not an easy place to find," Sam rebutted sternly. "He wouldn't let just _anyone_ stumble into his tower."

"Sam, c'mon, you're talking to the Halfa, savior of the Ghost Zone," he boasted. "If Clockwork is gonna let anyone visit, it's gonna be me."

I stopped listening at that precise moment because the steady green glow of the portal started to flicker, growing weaker and weaker until it fizzled out of existence. All that was left behind was a deep octagon-shaped hole in the wall. "Uh, Danny?" I called out nervously without taking my eyes off of the dead entrance. "What's going on?"

" _What_?" he yelped, running up to the entrance and looking inside. "Did my parents shut off the power or something? What gives?"

"Make room, kids!" Danny's dad, Jack, called as he tromped down the stairs and into the lab. "We're makin' repairs on the portal today. Something's off about the energy signatures it's outputting."

It wasn't until he finished explaining that he noticed the Specter Speeder, and he jabbed a thumb at it while raising an eyebrow at his son. "Danny, what's the Speeder doing out?"

"Uh, we were just checking out some of the new stuff you installed, Dad," Danny replied, doing his best to remain nonchalant. To my intuitive ears, it was almost painfully obvious that he was fibbing.

Jack Fenton clearly was not an intuitive type. "Did you remember to show them the cloaking device? Maddie suped it up to work even better than before!"

"You kids need to not be down here for a while, okay?" Danny's mom added upon making her appearance on the scene. "We're going to be handling some very sensitive equipment. Why don't you three spend the day at the mall together, or something? Go have fun while we work down here."

There wasn't much else to do about it, apparently. We'd been inadvertently thwarted by Danny's parents. I wasn't sure whether I was just a little bit glad and mostly upset, or just upset all around.

Either way, I inched my way to the stairs and tiptoed up them as quietly as I could— his parents were still ghost hunters, and I was more or less a ghost. I wasn't far behind Danny and his friends. Once we were far enough away, he let out an angry breath and glowered at the floor of his living room. "I can't believe this. Right as we were about to leave, too!"

"This majorly sucks," Tucker groaned. "What're we gonna do now?"

"At least Skulker can't get to us with the portal off," I said hesitantly. "Right? You beat him back into it last night."

"Let's just hope he doesn't find a natural one nearby," Danny responded, to the brief confusion of Sam and Tucker. "But yeah, I guess that's a good thing to come out of this."

"The Infimap sure would come in handy right around now," Sam mused as she pulled her backpack off her shoulder and rummaged around through it.

"Yeah, it would, but Frostbite has it and he's in the Ghost Zone," he reminded her.

"So, are we just going to have to wait until your parents fix the portal before we can go?" Tucker asked. "How long will that take?"

"Who knows? You know how they can be with their experimenting."

'This doesn't look good...' I thought sadly, holding onto my upper arms and remaining silent as I watched them deliberate amongst each other. 'What's going to happen if we have to wait too long? Will I actually... fade away?'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My apologies for the short chapter TT^TT


	8. Chapter 8

"We are sure you understand the consequences of deciding to bring the child here."

"Even with your track record of _cheating_ , we Observants think this is pushing your boundaries a little _too_ far."

"If you do not resolve this issue before their time streams get tangled and the barriers between dimensions crumble, there will be major catastrophes beyond what even _you_ can control."

He sighed and turned to face the three ghosts that had dropped in unannounced— though it wasn't like he hadn't known they were coming. "I am aware of all of this."

"But will you do _nothing_ to stop what you've set in motion?" the one in the middle asked him sharply. "By bringing the girl here—"

"I only allowed the time streams to merge for a mere moment," he said calmly, wielding his staff effortlessly as he moved from viewing portal to viewing portal. A number of various people were onscreen, going about their lives in ways that seemed inconsequential to them; in reality, there were always much bigger things at stake in their futures. "It was the wisest thing to do at the time."

"Was it really?" the Observant on the left queried skeptically. "The child is too risky. There are too many possibilities, many of them dangerous and unstable. The wrong choice on her part in any given moment could jeopardize the entire future's outcome!"

"I assure you and your council, I have everything under control."

"If but for this moment in time," the Observant on the right pointed out shrewdly. "Clockwork, you had better keep a sharp eye on this one. You now take responsibility for her as well as Phantom. Do not make yourself an enemy of the Council."

Clockwork did well at hiding his distaste behind a monotonous facade. "I'll keep that in mind. Now, please cease with your interrupting of my work. I have two eyes to keep on this new girl."

The jab didn't go unnoticed, but none of the cycloptic Observants chose to comment on it as they filed out through the front door of the floating clock tower. Once again in solitude, Clockwork redirected his attention to the sight in front of him: a young teen with blonde hair and an outdated camera dangling around her neck. She was walking with three others, two of whom could not see her, and she was looking at the city curiously. Suddenly, her hand wandered to her stomach and she frowned.

~~

"Uh... I'm sorry, Danny— I'm kinda hungry; can we get something to eat?" I asked him hesitantly while my stomach threatened to noisily voice its displeasure. I had devoured his lunch the day before, and then at his house he'd sneaked me some dinner from the kitchen, but there had been no breakfast and I'd recently almost starved to death. It was a wonder I wasn't any hungrier.

Actually, it was almost unnatural...

"Oh, yeah, sure," he replied casually. "Sam, Tucker, you wanna stop 'n get something from the Nasty Burger?"

Sam shrugged. Tucker grinned and held up a thumb. "Sounds good to me!"

"That _always_ sounds good to you," Sam jabbed.

"That's because food is always good!" he replied cheerfully.

"I hear that," I agreed under my breath since he couldn't have heard me even if I shouted it from the rooftops.

Danny glanced at me, and I think I might have seen a flicker of a smile on his face as well. 'Yay, I amused him. Go humor! Best way to make friends.'

We— and by that, I mean _they_ — placed our orders and got the food "to go" for my sake, because a floating hamburger being devoured in the restaurant would have been quite a sight to see. It seemed like we really were going to go to the mall, as per Danny's mom's suggestion, because we ate as we walked in what appeared to be that general direction. My first hamburger was easily gone in a minute and I didn't slow down until the second one was missing a large chunk.

At least when I focused on eating, I wasn't too worried about the future and all the looming danger I was apparently in. There was that risk of my fading away, and there was hardly any telling if the ghost portal would be fixed anytime soon. This wasn't even the right city or year! 'I'm going to die inside a little bit if I have to live through the silly-band explosion of 2010 again' I vowed as I placed the last bite of burger in my mouth and chewed it contemplatively.

"Good thing the Nasty Burger doesn't live up to its name," I said to Danny, who chuckled a little bit and agreed with me.

"So, you full now?" he asked.

I nodded and smiled gratefully. "Thanks for buying those burgers for me."

"No problem."

We arrived at the mall a short time later— enough for me to feel satisfied with the food in my belly— and just milled around without much of a goal to accomplish. I saw stores with sale announcements in the windows, shoppers with bags hanging off their arms, and absolutely nothing that sparked my genuine interest. Although, the fact that everyone was using flip phones made me snicker, and I had to play it off coolly when Danny raised an eyebrow at me. I pulled out my phone and fiddled with it, opening up the camera app. At least I could photographically document my time in a different year while I was there.

First, a quick selfie. My spirits— no pun intended— were up for once, so I smiled wide, then snapped the pic quickly before stowing away my device. I didn't want the battery to run out, and as far as I knew the concept of the selfie hadn't really been invented in 2007. Or, at least, it wasn't quite as popular. The flip phone era wasn't so compatible.

My Polaroid was at the ready, but before I could take any photos I saw that I was getting left behind and hurried ahead. The crowds were no trouble: I just phased through anyone that walked in front of me. One or two of the mall-goers involuntarily shivered when I did, though.

'Hang on. No one's ever reacted when I walked through them before' I realized. My eyebrows knit together as I frowned. 'This is new... I wonder what's going on.'

Either way, I speed-walked and made sure to be a little more careful about stepping into people until I caught up with Danny, Sam, and Tucker. The two boys were talking about something that sounded a lot like video games to me, and Sam was looking around, clearly bored. Did we really have nothing to do here?

I accidentally interrupted Danny and Tucker's chat by approaching; the weaker version of Danny's ghost sense went off and made him jump. Then he saw it was only me and relaxed before resuming his conversation like nothing had happened.

'Bored... Bored...' I sighed and folded my arms over my Polaroid camera. Not that I wanted any trouble to come crashing in, but I was kind of hoping we would all do _something_ worth the nuisance of coming here.

"Well, whattaya know? It's the _loooser_ squad."

I immediately saw who had spoken, and it was clear he meant the three I was with. The kid had short, well-kept blond hair and a very tough physique, as if the letterman jacket wasn't enough to identify what type of person he was: a football player. He and another guy, also similarly-built but Asian, approached with looks on their faces that said they were aiming to do some damage.

'Great. Bullies, no doubt' I realized with an angry glare heating up on my features. 'I wish I could tell them off.'

Danny's expression could only be described as "eternally done with this." "Dash, Kwan, do you really need to start something _now_? It's the weekend," he said. "Save it for school."

"Why wait until Monday when we can wail on you today?" this "Dash" character replied confidently. "I think there's a quote about that."

"In the middle of the mall, guys? Really?" Sam piped up, drawing in their attention for a moment. "Do you _want_ to get banned from ever coming here again?"

Her reasoning was totally valid to me, and I nodded my agreement despite the fact that I wasn't really visible. It didn't seem like the two bullies were interested in reason. Out of nowhere, an idea hit me and I decided there was no harm in trying it out.

On soundless feet I sneaked up behind Dash and Kwan, who were standing close enough to each other for me to reach out and touch their backs at the same time. The grade school game's rhyme came easily to me, and I moved both of my hands in sync while saying it quietly to myself.

"Dot dot dot, line line line, something crawling up your spine. Tight squeeze, cool breeze, now you've got the shiveries."

They both flinched mildly when I started the shiver test, and by the time the rhyme was over they definitely looked spooked. Halfway through, Dash told Kwan to quit touching him, to which Kwan responded with, "I'm not!"

"Man, freaky stuff _always_ happens around you, Fen-turd. _So_ not worth it on a Saturday," Dash spat before he started to leave. Kwan followed, looking in multiple directions with a nervous expression on his face.

"Uh, what just happened?" Tucker asked his friends. Sam shrugged cluelessly, and Danny was grinning at me appreciatively while I smothered my laughter.

"That was awesome, Camry! How'd you know that would work? And... what did you even do?" he asked.

"It's the shiver test," I replied proudly, my hands on my hips. "We did it to each other a lot in elementary school. You're supposed to not shiver, but it's hard not to."

"Thanks for getting them off our backs," he said, to which I nodded and said, "No problem." It was starting to become a familiar exchange.

~

When we returned to the Fentonworks a couple hours later to see how the portal was coming along, we were disappointed to see that Danny's parents still weren't finished with it. If there was one good thing to come out of that, though, it was that Skulker was still off our backs for the time being. For that, I was definitely grateful.

"Are there other portals that ghosts can get through?" I asked as we— meaning me, Danny, Sam, and Tucker— climbed the stairs up to his room.

"Oh, sure. There are natural portals popping up every so often, but there's really only one other man-made portal out there and it belongs to someone I'd rather not deal with." The look that passed over his face told me he wasn't too fond of that option. I chose not to comment. "But my parents said it would probably be done by tomorrow, so we don't have to wait too much longer."

"Cool," I replied simply. 

The door to his room was shut, lending us some privacy to talk. Sam started with, "I thought no one could sense Camry at all before. What was up with that at the mall today?"

"I have no clue," Danny said and looked at me. "Got any ideas?"

"Not really," I answered, crossing my legs and grabbing onto my heels idly. "I noticed that it made some people shiver when I walked through them, though. That's never happened before either."

"If people are starting to sense your presence..." He trailed off, obviously pondering heavily on the matter. His eyebrows shot up suddenly, telling me that he had thought of something. "Tucker, can you pull up that article that you found yesterday at Sam's?"

"Sure, dude," Tucker replied, pulling out his PDA and searching through his history until he found it. Then he started to read out loud.

_"It is probable that a ghost is comprised of two key ingredients: a recently departed human soul, and the hyper-specialized energy that is naturally given off by an ectoplasmic organism. Due to recent studies—"_

"Stop right there," Danny interrupted. "You said "energy of an ectoplasmic organism" just now."

He turned to me, and I met his gaze curiously. "What if, because you're spending all this time around me, you're gleaning ecto-energy off of me?"

"Without realizing it?" I added, lifting an eyebrow. "I guess it's possible. Does that keep me from fading away?"

Danny relayed my question to Tucker, who scrolled until coming to the part of the article that addressed the human soul component of the article. He read through it quickly and slowly nodded, then looked up from his device. "Looks like it. Without the energy, you would just fade away. With enough of it, you would become a full-fledged ghost with a core and everything."

"Wow," I said softly, and a smile spread on my face. "That's great! I'm not gonna fade away!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This might seem like a victory, but it's not the only problem that needs resolving... Stay tuned for more, and thank you for reading!


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys /so much/ for showing support for my story! My face lights up every time I see someone has left kudos~ And that's why this chapter is dedicated to Alyss_C (and the guest that left kudos here, too)!

There was still hope for me? Tucker's report still rang through my head hours after he and Sam had gone home for the day, and more than once I caught myself smiling like an idiot at nothing apparent. 

_'Without the energy, you would just fade away. With enough of it, you would become a full-fledged ghost with a core and everything.'_

Then again... what did that mean? A "core?" This was probably something to ask Danny about, but he was in the middle of trudging through homework before the weekend could be interrupted by a ghost attack. Maybe it was a good thing he wasn't paying any attention to me; I would've looked like a complete doofus, just sitting there and smiling at the wall. 

His room was remarkably quiet, save for the scratching of pencil on paper and his occasional unhappy mutterings. After about half an hour of this, I caught a grumble about how hard it was to "balance these stupid reactions." Suffice to say it made my ears figuratively perk up with interest. 

"Are you doing chemistry stuff?" I asked hopefully, breaking the stillness that had fallen over the room. 

He leaned back in his seat and slouched, throwing an arm over the back of his chair. "Yeah, and it's _impossible_!"

I was on my feet and peering down at his worksheet before I consciously realized I had moved at all. "Lemme see... Oh! I think I see what you did wrong. Hang... on..." Using his pencil, I sketched out the equation on the side of the paper and drew a couple of arrows to the factors he'd left out. "And then you take this part here... Gotta remember how many electrons are in each one... This makes _this_ , and this makes _that_..."

The equation was done, and I was proud of myself for remembering how to do it despite how I hadn't taken a chemistry class since the first term of the previous school year. It was still summer in my brain, after all. But then it hit me: I hadn't really shown him anything. I'd just taken over without even thinking! 

"Oh... Oops," I murmured, bringing a hand up to my mouth and looking down at the finished problem. "S-Sorry, I didn't... didn't mean to just take over like that."

"Do you wanna do the rest of my homework for me?" Danny asked, obviously joking by the way he laughed a bit at the end of his question. 

"Nice try," I answered. "Never heard that one before." 

"Okay, but seriously, you actually get this stuff?" he continued. "Can you explain it to me? The way my teacher goes over it makes _zero_ sense." 

"Uhh... Yeah, sure." He scooted over on his chair and patted the empty half of the seat, so I gingerly sat down and grabbed up his pencil again. Sharing a chair and a pencil, we managed to work through the entire worksheet in about twenty-five minutes thanks to my guidance. Somehow, I managed to fight the urge to just do it all myself. That's what usually happened when I worked in groups back home, anyway. 

"So... Does it make more sense now?" I asked when the last mark had been made on the paper. To the best of my knowledge, everything was more or less correct. 

"Honestly? Yeah, I think I get it now," Danny replied confidently. "I can't wait to see the look on her face when I hand this in on Monday." He turned a little to look at me with a genuine expression on his face. "Thanks for your help, Camry." 

"Y-You're welcome," I said, feeling my cheeks grow a little warmer in light of the gratitude. 

~ 

Omniscient POV~

A bit later, after Camry had finished helping Danny with parts of his homework and she'd grown bored sitting around in his room, she got up and announced that she was going to go outside for a bit. Danny warned her to look out for ghosts, but didn't object, so she crept downstairs and out the back door to meander in the backyard for a bit. It wasn't very large, which was to be expected of a house in the middle of town, but there was a tree and a rectangle of green grass. 

The girl in sweatpants and a camisole absentmindedly picked up a fallen stick, no bigger than a common twig, and parked herself at the edge of the grass where it fell away to reveal only dark dirt. She had no idea what she intended to do with it, but she put the end of the twig to the ground and started out with making simple swirls and wiggly lines. Maybe the doodling would help her think of something better to do...

~

As Danny strolled through the backyard, his hands in his jean pockets and a look of curiosity on his face, he noticed that Camry was sitting with her back facing the house. She appeared to be doing something with a stick in the dirt at the edge of the lawn.

"Uh, hey," Danny said as he drew near. Camry seemed to jump a little where she sat before turning to peer over her shoulder at him. Were her cheeks that pale pink because of the evening air or embarrassment? "Whatcha doing?"

"I-I'm, uh..." Camry stuttered, looking down at the markings in the soil at her feet. She clutched the little stick tighter in her hand. "I-I was just messing around. In the dirt."

He raised an eyebrow and leaned over to get a better view of the lines. If he really squinted, Danny could almost make out a face and a hood of some sort-- or maybe that was a scarf? "Were you drawing someone?"

Camry didn't answer at first; she chose to look down at the doodle and pensively rub her thumb across the twig's rough surface. Danny took a seat beside her after a second or two of silence and nudged her arm. "Cam? Are you okay?"

"Well... Yeah, but... I'm a little homesick," she finally admitted hesitantly, refusing to look at him. With a gesture of her twig, Camry began the one-sided introduction. "This is my best friend Saoirse-- or, well, I guess it's supposed to be her. She's my age, and we became friends when we skipped third grade together. We've been inseparable ever since, so... it doesn't feel right being away from her this long."

Rather than comment on the obvious pain in her voice, Danny focused his attention back to the drawing on the ground. "Where's her hair? Or is it just not done yet?"

"No, it's done, but she wears a hijab when she's not at home so I see her in one pretty often," Camry explained with a flicker of a smile on her face. "It's a headscarf that Muslim people wear because of their religion. Her father is from Pakistan and their whole family is Muslim, but her mom is from Ireland; that's why Saoirse has an Irish name."

"Wow, that's kind of awesome," Danny admitted while giving the drawing another glance.

"I kinda like this doodle, actually," Camry said as she reached over to her other side and picked up her Polaroid. "I think I wanna take a pic of it."

The corner of Danny's sneaker was caught in the frame of the photo, but Camry didn't mind and snapped the shot anyway. When it processed on the paper and became visible, she smiled at how well she could see the etched lines of her drawing. 'I hope I can show this to Saoirse someday...'

"... Y'know, Cam, I get how homesick you must be right now, but I have a feeling that we're gonna figure this out really soon. Like, tomorrow, probably," Danny began sincerely in an attempt to cheer her up. "Once the portal's up and running again, we'll go see Clockwork and have this whole mess figured out in no time."

"I hope you're right about that," she replied after letting out a little sigh. Then, in a much smaller voice, she added, "I just wish I could talk to her one more time..."

Maybe there was something to be said about genies and wishes, because the edges of the Polaroid picture began to glow with a sharp green light and the image blurred suddenly. Camry and Danny each immediately leaned back out of surprise, and the latter prepared to go ghost while the former somehow didn't lose her grip on the slip of photo paper. It glowed brighter and brighter, yet strangely didn't emit any heat, until it shifted to a nearly pitch-black scene. The green glow remained at the edges, and the photo had grown to the size of a dinner platter.

"Danny...?" Camry whispered under her breath as she slowly pried her shaking grip open. The picture didn't fall from its position in the air.

"Desiree?" he wondered aloud, but neither of their ghost senses had gone off.

There was suddenly a sound like a door opening, and a sliver of light cut through the monotonous darkness of the image. Was this... a video feed? A portal, maybe? The sliver grew, then was partially blocked by the shadow of a person. Camry had seen that silhouette a thousand times through mischievous sleepovers at her best friend's house.

"Wha--?"

"Saoirse? Saoirse, sweetie, wake up," a woman's voice, heavily accented with Irish, said solemnly from the doorway. The room was suddenly flooded with light, and Danny and Camry were looking into a girl's bedroom. Cam covered her mouth with one hand as she recognized every inch of it-- not that hearing her friend's name or Saoirse's mother's voice hadn't been enough of a giveaway.

A pile of blankets on the bed shifted around until it was sitting up and shielding its eyes from the bright light coming from above. "Mum?" Saoirse mumbled, blinking sleepily at her mother. "Wha's goin' on?"

"Saoirse, d'you know where Cam is?" Mrs. Mahadeo asked her daughter in a strained voice. Camry's powers of perception told her Saoirse's mom was having a difficult time refraining from crying; Camry had only heard her sound like that when the Mahadeos had to say their final goodbyes to their Alaskan Malamute named Mac five years prior.

"Cam...?" Saoirse repeated, rubbing an eye with the heel of her hand while peeling away blankets with the other. Soon her face and curly dark red-and-brown hair were visible from the vantage point of the portal, or window, or whatever it was. Danny and Camry watched intently as the scene unfolded. "Uh... At her house? Why?"

She seemed more alert by then, and a look of wary concern washed over Saoirse's face. Her mother hiccuped and walked through the portal's point of view, then sat down at the edge of her daughter's bed. Mrs. Mahadeo took Saoirse's hand in both of her own and hiccuped again.

"Oh, Saoirse... I just got a call from her parents, and... a-apparently there was some sort of g-gas leak that caught fire and... e-exploded."

"Mum?" Saoirse asked loudly, gripping her mother's hands tightly while leaning forward. "Mum, what... what're you tryin' t' say?"

The tears came on hard and fast then, and Saoirse looked absolutely horrified as her mom broke down crying right then and there. "Th-Their house... It's torn apart. They couldn't find anythin' at all," she managed to squeak out.

"W-Wait, Cam is--?" Saoirse began only to cut herself off midsentence and cover her mouth with a hand much like Camry was doing right then and there. "Mum, no! No, that can't be true!"

"I'm so sorry, dear," Mrs. Mahadeo whispered, folding Saoirse into a hug. "Your dad's on his way to pick up her parents and bring them here for the night. I just... I didn't want you to hear the news the wrong way."

"Mum, she can't be dead!" Saoirse sobbed into her mom's shoulder. She was clinging to the back of her mother's nightshirt so tightly.

Camry's hand shook when she peeled it from her face and whispered, "Oh, god, Saoirse...!"

She must have been a smidgen too loud, because Saoirse suddenly whipped her head up and stared with tear-blurred eyes at the exact spot where the portal seemed to be floating in front of the doorway. Her eyebrows rose and her jaw dropped as she took in the sight of Camry's face hovering next to a stranger's in midair.

"Camry?" Saoirse exclaimed, reaching a hand out to her best friend at the same time Camry instinctively tried to do the same.

All too quickly they vanished from one another, and the photograph of the doodle on the ground fluttered to rest at Camry and Danny's feet. Both ghost teens were completely frozen with shock at what had just happened right in front of their eyes. In fact, they were so numb that Camry didn't register the tears streaming down her face until Danny slowly turned to look at her and quickly asked if she was okay. She fiercely palmed the tears away and sniffed loudly before answering shakily. "Y-Yeah, I'm okay. What... What was that?"

"I have no idea, but I really hope we can find someone who does," he answered. "But... A gas fire?"

"No, that's... That's wrong," Camry said, closing her eyes as she tried harder to remember that fateful night. "The oven... The oven was involved."

"But... If it was a gas leak, it would make sense if your oven was the source of it..." Danny theorized slowly as he watched her expression carefully.

"No, that's not it!" Camry insisted, gripping the twig in a tight fist. "I can't remember...!"

He fell silent, taking in the sight of the drying tear tracks on her cheeks and the way her teeth were clenched with the effort of drawing out a buried memory. "Do you wanna go inside, maybe?"

Camry paused at the suggestion, then let out a resigned breath and nodded. "Yeah, let's... let's go inside." The evening breezes were flowing into the area and causing the temperature to drop, though neither teen seemed to register the shift.

Rising to her feet, Camry dropped the twig unceremoniously and followed Danny back into the house, where she would inevitably go upstairs and wait for him to bring her some food later. Little did either of them know, the diminutive stick was charred black and just barely smoking from its spot in the dirt. A faintly grey wisp drifted up into the air, then dissipated as if it had never existed in the first place.

~~

That night, under the moonlight streaming through Jazz's bedroom window, Camry sat with her legs crossed and the most recent photograph held delicately in both hands. Her iolite-colored eyes strained in the weak lighting to see the details she had already memorized from constant staring. Thankfully, Jazz couldn't hear her words as Cam whispered under her breath to the image.

"Please... Please, do that again. I want to see you, Saoirse-- I want to talk to you again. Please. I need you so badly right now... I miss you."

There was no reply, nor did a green light show start up again to form a portal of sorts. What had that been back there? A window to her own time, perhaps?

Why had she seen it, then? What, or who, caused it?

"I just want some answers... And to go home, and see my parents and Saoirse, and live a normal life again."

The tears had returned, and this time Cam let them fall freely but silently as her view of the picture blurred.

"Please... Is that too much to ask?"


	10. Chapter 10

The next morning was met with disappointing news about the ghost portal, and the futility of their efforts had Camry grinding her teeth subconsciously as she glowered at the floor.

"Sorry, Danny. The portal's still down for repairs," Danny's father told him. "But when it's done I'll show you all the cool things we added!"

"Why so much interest in the portal all of a sudden, Danny?" his mother asked curiously. The question had both Danny and Camry itching in their skin, but at least Camry didn't have to put up a front to hide it.

"No reason, really," he answered as casually as possible. "Sam, Tuck, and I are gonna hang out in town again today."

'Nice change of topic' Camry thought appreciatively, her dark blue eyes darting around to each of the three people in the room in turn.

"Have fun, then," his mom said cheerfully, waving as Danny left the subterranean lab by way of the stairs. Camry followed on silent feet, her shoulders slumped with defeat.

"What're we gonna do now?" she asked him, fear and uncertainty making her voice pitch rise.

"Well..." he said with a pensive hand on his chin. Danny's eyebrows furrowed; an unappetizing realization must have come to him. "Ugh. I didn't want to do this, but there's another portal we could try to use."

"Really? Where is it?" A faint glimmer of hope made her eyes widen and catch the light of the kitchen's overhead bulb.

~

"I'm here, I'm here!" Tucker exclaimed as he sped down the sidewalk, his sneakers slapping the concrete noisily. When he reached the street corner where Danny, Sam, and Camry were waiting for him, he bent down to put his hands on his knees and breathe. "Sorry, my dad, he-- he wanted to talk to me-- and I got held up."

"It's fine, we weren't waiting long," Sam told him. 

"Did you bring everything?" Danny asked, and Tucker presented a handful of wires and his PDA in one hand.

"Gotcha covered, man," he answered proudly, having caught his breath back. "That security system won't know what hit it."

"That's the idea," Danny said. "I'll phase us in while Vlad's busy in his press conference, and if the coast is clear we'll come back for Camry and go into the Ghost Zone together."

"Wait-- 'come back for Camry?'" said spirette echoed, incredulous. "I'm not going in with you guys?"

"Well, no. We don't know if Vlad's portal is guarded or not, and you don't have any powers to protect yourself with."

"Neither do they," Camry pointed out with a sweeping gesture to Tucker and Sam. " _And_ I brought the wrist ray you gave me. I'm not defenseless!"

Sam and Tucker exchanged skeptical glances at the seemingly one-sided conversation but didn't say anything out loud. Danny was more or less their team leader in ghostly cases, and if he thought so then it probably was best for Camry to remain behind for the time being.

"Trust me, Cam," Danny continued. "I know what I'm doing. Stay out here but close by, and I'll come back for you when we're sure we can use the portal."

Her lips pursed unhappily, but Camry managed to swallow her burning argument. " _Fine_..."

About a hundred yards away and around a street corner, the press conference was just beginning as a tall, lean man with silver hair stepped out into the warm sunlight. He took his place behind a podium and lowered his head ever so slightly to speak clearly into the microphones set up before him. "Hello, everyone, and thank you for coming out here on this beautiful spring day."

As his voice reached her ears, Camry took a quiet mental note of how refined but arrogant his voice pattern sounded. 'Typical bourgeoisie' she thought.

"Okay, guys, let's go," Danny announced to Sam and Tucker, who each held onto their friend as he turned the three of them invisible. Camry could only assume they'd flown off when a faint tickle of wind brushed against her cheek and she had the sudden sensation that she was on her own once more. Arms wrapped around her midsection for emotional support, she decided to walk around the corner and get out of the chilly shadows cast by the city's tall buildings. This loaned her a view of the group of reporters and citizens clustered around the podium where the mayor of Amity Park announced a new law; she didn't care to listen closely to that part of the spectacle.

No, what really caught her eye were the shiny cameras held by the filming crews of the local news stations. Besides carrying the wrist ray, her phone, and the emery board in her pocket, Camry also wore her Polaroid camera's neck strap. The weight of her prized possession lent a semblance of comfort that did much to ease her sparking nerves. Her hands wandered to it and found their rightful places on the plastic and metal, but she didn't take a picture.

"I wonder..." New and old photography tech alike fascinated her to no end, and if no one could see her, what was stopping her from wandering over there to take a quick look at the much bigger cameras?

"Danny said to stay close, but it's not like I'm going far..." Camry continued, hardly noticing when her feet began to lead her toward the conference. Within no time at all, she stood at the edge of the crowd and began to work her way between and around the spectators. If she happened to phase an arm or a shoulder through someone, only a quiet shudder passed over the person. 'Maybe that's what _really_ happens when you suddenly shiver for no reason.'

The nearest camera person predictably took no notice of her when Camry sidled up next to him, then slid around to peer right into the lens. It was _huge_ compared to her own Polaroid's. She circled him a few times, then drifted over to the next one, and the next. This repeated a few times until she found herself within a few feet of the edge of the stage, where Mayor Masters was still prattling on about the benefits of his new proposed legislation. She hiccuped suddenly, and a wisp of pale grey smoke left her mouth. 'Maybe it's just Danny nearby...'

"Should this be voted on favorably, it will lend Amity Park a new... _ahem_ ," he coughed, but not in a genuine way; it definitely sounded more like he was trying to get someone's attention. "Young lady, you're standing in the shot."

Camry felt her heart leap into her throat at the same time it stopped dead in her chest. She was indeed standing directly between the mayor and one of the nearest cameras' lens, but was he actually talking to her? That was impossible! Only ghosts could see her, not regular humans.

The crowd had quieted at the interruption, and a female reporter gestured to herself inquisitively while she looked over her shoulder. Camry turned slowly and let her eyes drift up to meet the mayor's; he was definitely looking directly at her. Eyes wide like a deer caught in a truck's headlights, she jabbed a thumb at her chest and minutely raised an eyebrow. He nodded.

"Mayor Masters, who are you talking to?" another reporter, this one male, inquired curiously.

She flinched at the reminder of her involuntary invisibility, and the mayor's dark eyes widened ever so slightly with understanding. He cleared his throat and straightened his tie before speaking into the microphones again. "I suppose it doesn't matter. Now, back to the--"

_BOOM!_

The explosion sent an unexpected shudder through the earth and caused several reporters to lose their balance. Not the mayor, though; he held onto the podium for support and spun to glare at the smoking hole that used to be a front wall of city hall.

A few minutes prior~

"Looks pretty empty to me, dude," Tucker commented from where he held onto to Danny's left side. "Y'think we really had to leave Camry behind?"

"It was just to be on the safe side," Danny assured him. They turned a corner, invisible, and kept flying down the carpeted hallway. "You know how Vlad can duplicate himself. It's not worth sneaking in here if we have to fight him."

"That's a bit more cautious than usual for you," Sam noted. When they came across a comically large painting of a certain self-assured half-ghost mayor, Danny set them down and let go, turning all three back to visibility. He had shifted into his ghost form while unseen to be conspicuous.

"She's something I've never seen before," Danny replied. "I don't really know what to do, so I'm trying to play it as safe as I can."

"She didn't follow us in, right?" Tucker glanced over his shoulder as if that would do him any good; he still couldn't see her except in mirrors. Danny let his gaze sweep up and down the length of the corridor, then shook his head. "Okay. Dude, how cute is she?"

" _Tuckerrr_ ," Sam groaned with a roll of her purple eyes.

"What? It's an honest question!" he shot back defensively. "So?"

"I... I dunno?" Danny said. "She's shorter than me by, like, a good four inches-- whatever. Can we just open the portal now, guys?"

"Yes, let's _focus_ ," Sam agreed with a pointed look at Tucker. He shrugged nonchalantly, a satisfied smirk on his face.

Before the painting stood a pedestal upon which sat a marble bust of Vlad, which Danny flipped up to reveal an obvious red button. "Predictable as ever," he muttered as his gloved index finger pressed it. The painting slid up into a slot in the ceiling, and in its place was a rectangular portal of swirling green colors. "Awesome! His is working--"

"Danny, look out!" Sam cried out suddenly, having spied a glint of metallic armor drawing closer from the other side. The unmistakable sound of a jet flying through the air reached their ears, and Danny lunged toward Sam and Tucker to turn them intangible. When it hit, the blast formed a crater in the next three walls and reached all the way outside.

"Finally," a deep voice said as he drifted through the portal and alighted on the ground in front of the three teenagers. "The hunt resumes!"

"I don't think so!" Danny yelled back, picking up both of his friends and zipping through the hole Skulker had blown through city hall.

Outside was _chaos_ : reporters and camera crews scattered, colliding with one another in their desperate bid to get away from the carnage. The mayor still stood by his podium, but when his eyes swept over the crowd he saw that none of the cameras were trained on him anymore. With that, he ducked behind the pedestal and shifted form only to turn invisible right after. Vlad took to the skies, unseen, to watch what happened beneath his feet.

Camry's blonde hair whipped wildly around her face as she looked left and right over and over again in search of an escape. With everyone running around like chickens with their heads cut off, she couldn't orient herself or even find a place to hide. To her it seemed like all she could do was duck down by the corner of the stage and hope nothing came her way. With both hands on the back of her neck, she crouched and shut her eyes to try and block out the pandemonium.

"Oh, Daniel. I should have guessed," Vlad sighed as he caught sight of the monochromatically-dressed superhero flying his sidekicks out of the smoking building. He dropped them off on the sidewalk and dashed back to meet Skulker, who was also just emerging into the sunlight. "And Skulker, too? My, what a mess."

Outside of the fight ensuing below, Vlad's mind wandered ever so slightly to the girl that only he saw. 'Why could I see her? She was invisible to everyone else, wasn't she?' Her odd way of dressing certainly stood out, and she'd looked so shocked when he called her out. 'I wonder... Wait, no. Could she really be--?'

And there she was, cowering on the ground by the stage! As Danny blasted Skulker with energy beams and the hunter ghost dodged them, Vlad drifted down to stand invisibly in front of her. Releasing the veil to be unseen, he dropped to one knee and held out a kind hand toward her. "Are you alright, miss?"

Camry jumped at the voice talking to her and her eyes flashed open. That sounded like the mayor! But the ghost kneeling before her didn't look very similar to that man. His skin color had a resemblance to a photo negative, just like her reflection, and his eyes were a solid crimson.

"A-Are... Are you another ghost that w-wants to get me?" she asked him cautiously, reaching for the wrist ray stashed in her pocket. Her fingertips only met the abrasive surface of her metal emery board. Where was the ray? Dread pooled like molten lead in her stomach, but her grimace wasn't strong enough to overpower the fear on her face.

He shook his head. "No, dear child. But it's not safe for you here. We should leave before--"

"I can't," Camry blurted out, then shrank back when she realized she had interrupted him. "I-I mean... I'm waiting for someone, and I shouldn't go where he can't find me."

"You would be entirely safe. I swear on my afterlife," Vlad promised, raising a right hand at first to show his commitment, and then to hold up a pink shield of energy that deflected debris from raining down on their heads. The podium had been struck by a missile and exploded into thousands of pieces.

When she uncovered her head and saw the shield, a flicker of doubt passed over her face before Camry hesitantly nodded. "O... Okay. But--! Wh-What's your name?"

"Vlad Plasmius," he responded cordially. "And yours?"

"Camry," she answered.

"A pleasure to meet you, Camry," Vlad said as he took hold of one of her hands and pulled her into the air. He effortlessly extended invisibility to her as well, and they flew through a few walls of city hall to wind up in a well-furnished office.

"You have _got_ to give this _up_!" Danny exclaimed to the ghost whose metal arm was poised to fire another barrage of missiles. "Your stupid "persistence hunting" isn't going to work!"

"Ah, so you've figured out my plan of attack," he commented, forming a fist with his hand. "I hope you enjoyed that little break, because I won't give up until I've got your pelt hanging over my fireplace!"

" _Dude... Seriously_ ," Danny sighed. He brought his palm up and fired a blast that struck Skulker in the chest and sent him feeling through the air. "Ew."

When Skulker struck the pavement, bits of asphalt scattered in all directions and he left a substantial pit in the road. His arms trembled with the effort of pushing himself onto his knees. A bright white-blue beam of light suddenly enveloped his entire body and sucked him inside the Thermos held between Danny's hands. He capped the device and let out a huge breath of relief.

"Glad that's over," he said, and then turned when he heard two pairs of footsteps pounding over to meet him.

"You caught him!" Tucker cheered.

"Yeah, and it'll be a while before I let him back out into the Ghost Zone," he added with a spiteful shake of the canister. "I just wish I knew how to get him to stop this persistence huntiiii-- oh my gosh, I forgot about Camry!" His eyes roamed over the area, taking in the sight of the obliterated podium and pockmarked street. There wasn't anyone in a lime green camisole or black sweatpants to be seen. "Crud!"

Meanwhile~

"I don't normally entertain guests in my office, so I'm afraid I only have these to offer you," Vlad said, still in his ghostly form as he extracted a package of tea cookies from a drawer in his impressive oaken desk.

Camry was rigidly seated in an armchair that dwarfed her in comparison. Her eyes never left Vlad as he moved around the room, gathering cups and a kettle. "You're... You _are_ the mayor, right?"

A corner of his mouth turned up before a ring of black light swept over his body, bringing back the ponytailed politician. "You're very clever to have figured that out." The compliment brought a twitch of a proud smile to her face. "No one told you, did they?"

"No, he, uh, forgot to mention you were like him..." She trailed off, eyes drifting over to look at the plate of cookies sitting on his desk.

"By "he," I assume you mean young Daniel, yes?" Water for tea was boiling in a kettle on a hot plate set up on a nearby counter top. It hadn't begun to whistle yet, but the steam was making warm clouds in the air.

"Y... Yeah," she stammered. Danny hadn't sounded too pleased to know Vlad, and hadn't he mentioned him as an archenemy at one point? 'I think I just made a big mistake--!'

"There's no need to be so stiff, Camry," he continued. "You can go on and have a cookie if you'd like."

She, in fact, would very much have liked to have a cookie, but doubts of Vlad's generosity had begun filtering through her logical reasoning. What if they were poisoned, or drugged? Something awful had to have happened between Vlad and Danny if they considered each other archenemies, after all. Who's to say something bad wasn't about to happen in just a few moments?

Vlad looked her up and down curiously, assessing how her arms were tense and her bare toes overlapped one another. "Are you afraid of me, dear?"

The forward question startled Camry into looking right at him. She saw a mix of emotions there: curiosity, intrigue, maybe even a little amusement? "I'm... I'm afraid of everyone."

"But particularly of ghosts who are after you?" he guessed, hitting the nail directly on the head. "You asked me if I was one of them."

"Well... I mean, yeah. Because they're a-after me. Skulker," and she jabbed a thumb in the general direction of where they'd just been, "already tried to kidnap me into the Ghost Zone."

"Did he now?" The look of surprise on Vlad's face came off as not entirely all that surprised to Camry, which had alarm bells ringing in her ears. "Is it because you're a spirette?"

"H-How did you know that?" she asked, her dark blue eyes wider now as she registered just how calculating this man standing before her truly was.

The kettle began to whine, and he turned his back to her to prep the tea while continuing to speak. "It wasn't hard to figure out. Only ghosts can see you, correct?" He didn't wait for an affirmation; he was that sure of himself. "Which includes half-ghosts such as Daniel and myself. And they're trying to get you to themselves so they can turn your allegiance to their individual causes."

One of her eyebrows rose at that. "What?"

"I thought you wouldn't know the reason why these ghosts are after you," Vlad said with a nod. He turned back around, bearing a tray with two tea cups and a bowl of sugar cubes. "I've been meaning to do more research into the spirette phenomenon, but as I'm sure you can imagine, finding one is extremely rare. It's even rarer to meet one who isn't close to fully developing their core, as you are." The tray made a gentle clinking sound when he set it down on the desk.

"You're... not making any sense, Mr. Vlad." She scooted forward to take the cup intended for her-- with no intent to drink it, of course.

"You're curious to know more about what's happening to you, aren't you?" Vlad took a seat behind his desk and steepled his fingertips contemplatively. The look was rather... imposing.

She nodded slowly, rubbing the pad of her thumb up and down the warm cup's smooth, porcelain side. "I guess... what I really want to know is why I'm here, and if I'm g-going to be okay. We read something about... about fading away, and it really freaked me out."

"Ah," he said, leaning forward to take a cookie for himself. "That _would_ be frightening to hear. You don't look very unstable to me, though it's difficult to say without running definitive tests on your structural density."

He seemed like he was about to continue with his train of thought, but a hiccup from Camry silenced Vlad and made his eyes zero in on the pale wisp of smoke dissipating in the air. "You have a fire-based core?"

"I-I dunno?" she stammered, glancing all around the office while worrying her bottom lip between her teeth. Who was coming near?

"What a coincidence; I, too, have a fire-based core," Vlad said rather quickly. "I have a proposition that would prove beneficial for the both of us, Camry. Allow me to train you and teach you about being a ghost, and you certainly wouldn't have to worry about--" He paused as a red wisp left his own mouth, then resumed as if nothing had happened, "--fading away."

"What would you get--?" Camry began, but a sudden appearance of one white-haired teen on the scene cut her question short.

"Camry!" Danny exclaimed upon flying through a side wall and putting himself between her and Vlad. "What did he do to you?"

"Calm down, Daniel," Vlad chastised him. "You can see for yourself that I haven't "done" anything at all." For emphasis, he used his fingers to make air quotes.

Camry rose from the armchair and, moving around Danny, put her untouched cup of tea back on the tray perched on the desk. "He didn't try to hurt me, Danny," she assured him. "He was telling me about spirettes and why ghosts are after me."

"It's true," Vlad said. "A topic I'm sure you know remarkably little about."

Danny glared at the older man, which made his green eyes glow brighter with anger. Teeth grit and hands balled into fists, he dropped down to the floor; a moment ago he had been hovering a few inches above in order to fly out at the drop of a hat.

"See, Daniel, this is why you should have agreed to let me train you," Vlad continued. "You would have been able to learn about phenomenons like spirettes and fading."

"I'm not interested in learning from a fruit loop like you," he snapped in retaliation. "Come on, Camry. Let's get out of here."

He took hold of her wrist so they could fly out together, but before he lifted off Camry looked over her shoulder at the silver-haired half-ghost seated behind his desk. "Thanks for pulling me to safety, Vlad."

"Of course, child," he replied. "My offer still stands if you're ever interested."

Danny zipped out of there before Camry could reply. They rejoined the earth in an alleyway right next to where they'd planned their 'invasion' of city hall, and Danny shifted back into his human form. Camry watched with large, intrigued eyes as the rings of light transformed him once more. Her mind immediately began to compare his morph with Vlad's, taking note of the light's differing colors.

"What the heck _happened_ with you, Camry?" Danny demanded to know suddenly, startling her out of her reverie. "Why were you with _Vlad_?"

She wrung her hands together meekly in front of her chest as she answered. "I-I panicked when that explosion, y'know, _exploded_. And you didn't _tell_ me he was half-ghost like you, either. Vlad pulled me out of there-- but then he knew I was a spirette! A-And he started to tell me about why ghosts are after me, but he didn't get very far before you showed up. He didn't do anything to me, I swear."

"Yeah, _this_ time," Danny said with a sidelong glare aimed at the alley's brick wall. "You've gotta stay away from him, Camry. For your own safety."

"Daaannyyy!" Sam's voice cut through the air from afar, and Danny walked to the mouth of the alley and flagged down his two friends. Camry followed silently, still wringing her hands. Today had been filled with more than enough excitement.


	11. Chapter 11

Tall green blades of grass surrounded me on every side, offering no easy pathway elsewhere. I relaxed there on the soil, allowing the warm sunlight to wash over my whole body. Thousands of smells reached my nostrils, constantly telling me whether I was in danger or not; so far, so good.

A gentle rustling sound filled my ears and caused my head to snap up in attention. What could that be? Then a new scent filled my nose, driving my heart rate up impossibly high and telling me I needed to run away as fast as possible. I took off on speedy feet, allegedly putting the smell behind me until another wall of it struck me head-on. 

_Reptile_ , I realized with a start. I turned ninety degrees to escape, but the smell was there, too. Finally, I caught a glimpse between the grass of black scales undulating over powerful muscles. It suddenly jerked toward me, and I let out a frightened squeak as I dashed away and almost ran right into another wall of scales. The snake had me surrounded with its long body! 

_Hssss_... I turned again, just in time to see my own terrified face reflected in the snake's opalescent eyes. _Tasty mousse_...

The snake lunged, but I was paralyzed with fear and could only tremble as I was swallowed whole by a fanged maw. All my senses went dark save for one: pain.

" _Wah_ \--!" I yelled as I jolted into an upright position on the floor. The faint echoes of such an eerily horrifying dream pulsed in my memory, nagging me to realize something just beyond my reach. My palm drifted to my warm forehead and stayed there as I shut my eyes to block out the dream. 'A mouse getting eaten by a snake... Wow. That was _entirely_ too random.' 

When my eyes opened again, I took a gander at my surroundings and remembered I was back in Danny's room. The beginnings of a sunset glowed outside his window, and a faint murmur in my stomach told me it was getting close to dinner time. It was still Sunday, right? 

"Oh, right. Danny's parents made him go see what they'd done to the portal," I said out loud to myself. "I wonder if that means we'll be using it soon." 

With nothing else to do, I grabbed my phone from its resting place on the floor and checked the battery life. It had to be close to dying after so long-- wait a second. "What? It hasn't changed at all!" I exclaimed, quickly swiping it open and going to my settings. The display didn't lie: it was still at 37%, just as it had been before I drifted off for a nap. In fact... "It had been at 37% when I was back home, right? I remember thinking to myself that I ought to plug it in soon, not long before I heard a noise downstairs..." 

So, my battery life was frozen in time. "I guess that's a good thing, since I'll still be able to use it for a while."

Footsteps stomped up the stairs, growing louder until Danny opened his bedroom door and shut it behind him. Despite how his feet had seemed angry, he had a relieved look on his face-- was it relief to get away from his parents' antics? 

"The portal's finally finished, so we can head out after everyone goes to sleep tonight," Danny told her in a low voice, in case anyone could hear him. 

"Really?" Camry asked hopefully, a smile stretching her face. "That's so great!" 

Her expression drifted to uncertainty after a moment, and she looked down at her lap before lifting her head. "You don't think anything too weird or crazy is going to happen, do you?" 

Danny had moved from the door to sit on his bed, so he lounged against the headboard as he replied. "Well... It's the Ghost Zone, so there are a lot of ghosts living there. Skulker isn't there, though; he's still in the Thermos. If we're careful and don't stay too long, I'm sure we won't run into anything too bad." 

'He said "bad," not crazy...' Camry fretted internally. 'Are we going to be in danger?' 

He must have picked up on some of the anxiety in her face, because Danny amended quickly, "And besides, I'll be there! Savior of the Ghost Zone, right?"

"Uh, right... Why are you called that?" she asked, if just to try and distract herself from her uneasiness. 

As he launched into the tale of how he defeated the Ghost King after Vlad released him from the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep, Camry took mental notes of how he viewed the ghosts and half-ghosts he mentioned. Some definitely were on better terms with him than others; it was those who weren't that she knew she would need to watch out for. 

A few hours later~ 

Finally, when Jack Fenton's snores could be heard throughout the house and Jazz's reading lamp had been flicked off, Danny and Camry crept out on all but silent feet down to the basement lab, where she was advised to stay and not touch anything before he returned with Sam and Tucker in tow. By the glow of a single desk light, Camry held her hands behind her back as she circled through the room a few times, curiously looking over the gadgets and weapons in various stages of completion. Her curious blue eyes took in the sight of bits of machinery, tubes and vials filled with glowing green goo, and especially the black-and-yellow-striped doors of the ghost portal. Soon, she would be traveling through those very same doors into a new world, one she had never even considered existing before the events of the past few days. 

Disobeying Danny for just a moment, she placed a hand flat on the door, to the right of the middle seam, and closed her eyes. She could definitely feel something there, like an inviting tug to go home. The corners of her mouth threatened to lift in a gentle smile, but an image flashed through her mind with such intense clarity that it startled her into pulling her hand back against her chest. Saoirse was wrapped up in her bed's duvet, sobbing into one of her pillows and refusing to look up when her younger twin brothers, Aidan and Liam, tried to comfort her. 

Camry instinctively grabbed her Polaroid that hung around her neck, but she didn't try to take any pictures; after that glimpse into her own time, she hadn't felt too inclined to take any more photos with her camera. 'Did you do that again, just now?' Cam thought to her camera, but predictably received no response. 

Her ghost sense released a sudden wisp of pale grey smoke into the air, and Camry turned to see Danny phase through the ceiling and set his best friends' feet on the floor. 

"Hi, guys," she said, and Danny relayed the message for her. 

"Ready to go into the Ghost Zone?" Tucker asked her enthusiastically, and in response she held her hand out flat and tilted it side to side with a noncommittal "Ehhh..." Danny copied it for her. 

"Are we gonna stand around or get going?" Sam asked, already standing beside the Specter Speeder. Danny unlocked the door and all four of them climbed inside, taking up various positions inside the cockpit: Sam in the middle, Danny at the controls, Tucker on Sam's other side, and Camry standing behind the seat. She held onto the back of the seat in a vicious grip that only tightened as the engines fired up and they lifted into the air. Up ahead, the portal doors slid apart to reveal that swirling green wall she remembered from when Skulker tried to kidnap her. How long ago had that really been? After so much going on all at once, it felt like _weeks_ ago.

"Everybody hang on tight," Danny announced, and then pushed the gear into drive and shot them toward the portal. Camry hardly had to be told twice; for good measure, she ducked into a crouch to shield herself from the sight of the portal fast approaching. Her curiosity berated her for not being brave enough to stare into the first glimpses of a new dimension, but fear overrode her curiosity and told her she needed to hide. 

There was definitely a physical indication that they had passed through. The air got hard to breathe for a few tense seconds, then returned after she forced her lungs to work harder. A chill settled on her skin, especially where it was bare, and she shivered unexpectedly. Only a faint trace of heat in her chest combated the cold. 

She hiccuped once, then cracked open her eyes to see how dark the smoke was: definitely a warning of danger if she had ever seen one. 

"You alright back there, Cam?" Danny asked over his shoulder without taking his eyes off the "road." 

Camry sucked in a shaky breath before stammering out an uncertain, "Y-Yeah, I'm good... I think?" 

Sam and Tucker suddenly gasped in unison and twisted in their seats to stare behind them. "Whoa!" Tucker exclaimed, eyes wide behind his glasses. Camry jumped and peeked over the seat's back to look at them; the way their eyes were focused on her could only mean one thing. 

"Y-You guys can _see_ me?" 

"Yeah!" Sam answered. 

Just then, Danny glanced over his shoulder and could only stare as he said, incredulous, "Your hair is _blue_!"

"I-It is?" Camry yelped, putting a hand to her hair and bringing a lock around in front of her eyes. Gone was the pale yellow of her natural color-- it had been replaced by a sky-blue shade that seemed to glow ever so slightly in the faint shadows cast by the speeder's cockpit. " _What_?"

She stood up straight and swiveled to search for a mirror. If her hair had changed, what else had? A shiny metal panel fixed to the wall was her best option, so she hurried over to it in the hopes that it would reflect her image and she could see what was happening. 

The picture was blurred at best, but it gave her the general idea of her appearance: her short hair was now blue, and twin flecks of bright red-orange in the reflection had her raising an eyebrow out of curiosity. Could those be her eyes? 

Camry gently felt her face with the fingertips of one hand to make sure she was all still there, especially the scar on her right cheekbone. The rougher skin remained exactly in place as she remembered it. When she turned to look back at the others, Danny was passing the controls to Sam so he could get up and get a good look at Camry. Under his scrutinizing stare, she felt her cheeks heat up from embarrassment and averted her gaze to the smooth floor. 

"Your hair and eyes changed color," he said, looking just as confused as she felt. "Kinda like how mine do when I go ghost, actually." 

"And now we can see you, too?" Tucker added. 

"It must be because you went through the portal," Danny hypothesized. "And now you're in the Ghost Zone." 

"I-Is that a bad thing, or...?" she asked, wringing her hands together. 

"I don't think so... But it's hard to say," he answered. "Maybe if we--" 

"Uh, Danny?" Sam interrupted him quickly. "Maybe we should figure out where we're going before we get too deep into the Zone?"

"Yeah, Sam, I'm on it," he answered, taking back his place at the controls. "Okay, so we're on our way to see Clockwork. Let's hope he wants us to visit..." 

That last part didn't sound like it was entirely meant to be said out loud. Camry said nothing in reply, but her mind reeled with the implications his statement held. Was he hard to find? Could they even find him? What if they didn't? What if he didn't want them to visit and they never find him and she gets no answers about why she's here and it leads to horrible things happening to her and--? 

'Get a grip, get a grip, get a _grip_!' she yelled at herself. Her eyes searched for a door, maybe to a bathroom or a storage compartment of some sort, only to come up with nothing at all useful. 

"Hey, Camry. You okay?" Sam's concerned voice cut through her panic and made her look over at her. She was twisted around in her seat and had a somewhat knowing expression on her face. 

Camry swallowed down a lump in her throat and made herself nod. "Y-Yeah, I'm fine. Just worried..." 

'Panicking, more like it.'

"What if we went to Frostbite to borrow the Infimap, dude?" Tucker suggested. "It's _gotta_ lead us to Clockwork's tower." 

"Yeah, it's worth a shot," Danny agreed. 

"But we can't have another episode like _last_ time," Sam interjected. 

Camry had drifted over to crouch behind the wide seat, so she easily joined the conversation when she echoed, "Episode?" 

"Vlad stole the Infimap from us and we had to chase him through time and space to get it back," Danny recounted. 

"Oh... I see..." she replied, clearly not exactly sure what all that meant. "So... Could the Infimap help me get back to my own time?" 

"If it can get us to Ancient Rome, the Salem Witch Trials, and Ancient China, then probably," Sam said. 

"Yikes. Salem?" 

"Yeah, Salem. _Not_ a happy place."

~~

"I hate to say it, but I don't think we're gonna find him tonight, guys," Tucker said when he glanced at his PDA and spied the time: 2:47 am. He stifled a wide yawn and slouched in his seat. "And we have school tomorrow."

His yawn set off a chain reaction that all three other passengers caught. "Yeah, I think you're right, Tuck," Danny agreed. "It's weird we haven't seen that many ghosts around, though..." 

"They're probably all sleeping," Sam said. "Not that I need to." 

"Yeah, yeah, 'creature of the night,'" Tucker recited. "Some of us actually _like_ sleeping, y'know." 

"I like sleeping. I just don't need it as much as you do." 

Their conversation lasted until they arrived back at the Fentonworks lab and Danny shut off the speeder's engine. Upon reentry with the living plane of existence, Camry checked her hair again and saw that it was still just as blue as it had been in the Ghost Zone. Did that mean she was still visible to regular people?

"Can you guys still see me?" she asked them, and all three gave her a quick glance and nodded. "Oh..." 

"Oh, yeah," Danny realized with wider eyes. "My parents... Hey, Sam~?" He had adopted that tone everyone recognized as "I'm about to ask for a favor from you." 

"What?" she asked him warily. 

"You wanna have a slumber party?" 

~

"You _so_ owe me for this," Sam muttered to her best friend after he let go of her and Camry's wrists in Sam's gothic bedroom. 

"I know," he answered. "But we don't really have any other choice. She can't stay at my house anymore because she's not invisible, and your house has so many empty rooms that it should be easy to hide her here." 

Sam exhaled loudly in distaste before looking resigned. "I know it makes the most sense to hide her here. But what if, I dunno, Skulker comes by looking for her?" 

"I'll leave a portable ghost shield and some extra Wrist Rays with you guys," Danny said. "And you can always call me, too." 

He covered his mouth to stifle a sudden yawn and glanced at a spider clock on the purple-painted wall. "Man, tomorrow is gonna suck..." 

"You mean today," she corrected him. "See you in a couple hours." 

He took off after saying goodbye to Camry, who was idling near one of the corner posts of Sam's enormous bed. As soon as he left, the first words out of her mouth were a meek, "I-I'm really sorry, Sam." 

"Huh?" One of her eyebrows lifted, perplexed. "Why?" 

"'Cause... 'Cause I had to stay with you, and I know you don't really want me here," Camry fretted, running her thumb over the back of her other hand's knuckles. 

Sam placed her fingers on her forehead for a second, eyes closed, and exhaled before looking back at her and replying. "It's not that I don't want you here, Camry. I just don't like how this was so sudden. You're fine, really." 

"You're sure?" she asked. Sam nodded. "Okay... I'll try not to, y'know, mess up your flow or anything while I'm here." 

The dark-haired girl yawned and blinked slowly a couple of times. "Time to sleep. You wanna change into pj's or something?" 

Sam was about the same height as Danny, which put Camry at a slight disadvantage when borrowing her clothes; the hems of Sam's bat-printed sweatpants spilled over Camry's toes, and the waist had to be secured tightly around her hips with the drawstring. At least the purple T-shirt fit well enough, even if it was a tad bit longer than what Camry might have considered normal. Sam threw Camry's other clothes in the wash and set her up in the adjacent guest room. 

"You can't sleep in my room because my parents like to wake me up in the morning," Sam explained with an obvious groan in her tone. "And since they could see you now, we have to make sure they don't." 

The blue-haired ghost slowly took in the sight of the guest room with its pastel pink walls with white trim, large round windows to let in plenty of natural light, and the king-sized bed with a fluffy duvet to match the decor. After being in Sam's room, which in all honesty looked like a teen romance novel's vampiric chateau, the contrast was more than enough for Camry to raise an eyebrow. Was this something of a hint at what Sam's parents were like? 

Either way, the unfamiliar setting had Camry's heart beating insistently louder in her chest. Her hands folded together and rested against her sternum, pressing down hard on her skin to keep the organ from breaking loose. Sam seemed oblivious to the gesture and strode purposefully further into the bedroom, all the while giving distasteful glances at the cheerful stylistic choices everywhere. She grabbed one side of the heavy bedspread and started to lift it up, but then thought better of it and lowered it to look back at Camry, still standing just inside the doorway. 

"Hey, wanna give me a hand with this?" Sam asked indicatively. Camry gasped ever so softly when spoken to and fast-walked over to the other side of the bed, where she took up the opposite side of the duvet. Working together, they shook out the blanket and laid it flat on the sheets and mattress. 

"You're not worried we'll w-wake up your parents, are you?" Camry asked as she idly smoothed out creases in the fabric. 

"Them? No, they're heavy sleepers, and they're a ways down the hall," Sam assured her. "My grandma, on the other hand... Well, she's downstairs so we should be alright."

'A grandma, too? And she seemed nervous at the idea of her grandma. Will she be harder to hide from? What's she like? Oh no, oh no...!' 

"Hey, don't worry about it," she spoke up easily. "Things'll work out just fine; I'm sure of it." 

"I hope you're right..." Camry admitted quietly before she sank down into the edge of the mattress and flopped onto her back. "Thanks for letting me stay here, Sam. I owe you one." 

"Yeah, you do, but I think I know how you can make it up to me." Her tone shifted, if barely, but it was enough to set off Camry's internal alarm bells. 

She sat up and kept her hands pressed against the bed to hide their slight shaking. "Yeah? H-How so?" 

"Just promise me something." Sam's purple-coated lips were set in a serious line. Camry nodded for her to continue. "Promise me you won't hurt Danny." 

Her red-orange eyes were shocked into widening at the mere thought of such an implication. "Wh-Why do you think I'd hurt him?" 

Sam clenched her fists at her sides for a second, then relaxed them. "Because he's been hurt in the past-- by other ghosts, especially. And I can tell that he cares about you even though he only just met you. But he's been betrayed by the people he cares about before." Her gaze drifted to the ground at her left side, then snapped back up to stare Camry down. "I'm not going to stand by and let it keep happening. So promise me, right now, that you're not going to bring him to any harm." 

Camry swallowed thickly, her heartbeat so loud in her ears that she almost had trouble hearing what Sam had said. She bobbed her head up and down slowly. "I promise I'm not trying to hurt him. And I promise I'm not going to try to hurt him." 

The steadiness in her voice surprised herself, though she kept it internalized to keep up her convicting demeanor. Sam studied Cam's face for a few extra seconds to look for any deception and found none. 

"... Okay, I believe you. Thanks for promising me that." She turned toward the door and, hand on the knob, looked back over her shoulder. "You need anything before I hit the hay?" 

Camry shook her head mutely, and Sam nodded once before opening the door. She closed it quietly with a final, "G'night," and was gone. 

Her back reconnected with the bed with a loud _whump!_ while she threw an arm over her eyes. Cam's chest heaved with the task of drawing breath; it was like she had just run an entire mile without stopping. 

'Calm down, she's not a stranger. She's not gonna hurt you!' Camry tried to tell herself. Holding her other trembling hand up above her head, she peeked out from under her arm and bit her lower lip timidly. 'I guess it was easier when she couldn't see me, huh. Nobody could hurt me then...' 

_"I'm not going to stand by and let it keep happening."_

She shut her eyes tight and let her hand drop onto her chest. 'She was serious about it. But I wouldn't try to hurt Danny, or anybody for that matter! Just ask Saoirse... She was there that day...' 

~~ 

"Why are we having such a hard time finding him?" Danny griped from the front seat of the Specter Speeder as they zoomed through the parallel dimension that was the Ghost Zone. 

It was Monday afternoon, and Tucker had opted out of tagging along on this venture. That left room for Camry to sit on the side seat, and she quietly let her eyes take in the whole new world expanding before her. Chunks of free-floating earth peppered the swirling green horizon, intriguing her to no end. 'If the land is like that here, why isn't it the same in the living world?' 

"You wanna try for the Infimap?" Sam asked. 

"Maybe, but I don't know if we have time for that today," he groaned. "Tomorrow, for sure." 

Tuesday~

"I am sorry, but the Infimap isn't responding to my commands at the moment," Frostbite, a towering snow beast with a prosthetic arm made of ice, reported in a grim tone. "It would not be wise to let it out of my sight until it is working again." 

"Since when does the Infimap not work?" Sam asked, her arms folded over her chest to keep some of her body heat within. She had donned a heavy black winter coat in preparation for their visit to the Far Frozen, as had Tucker. Danny, of course, was totally fine with the freezing temperatures. 

"It is a puzzling matter," Frostbite agreed. "I will be looking into this extensively." 

Danny let out a sigh that fogged up in the chilly air. "Thanks anyway, Frostbite. We'll just have to find Clockwork another way." 

Wednesday~ 

"I swear, his tower was right around here the last time we saw him!"

Camry flinched at the frustration straining Danny's voice. She glanced down at her hands in her lap, taking note of how the fingers laced together like they were meant to always be that way. 

Thursday~

"Why can't we _find_ him?" Danny Phantom griped, putting the speeder in park on a floating land mass. He unbuckled his seat belt and stepped out to pace around on the rock, his gloved hands running through his snow-white hair. Camry followed him more slowly, choosing to stand by their ride and watch him pace. "I don't get it! Why would he be hiding his tower?" 

She bit her lower lip for a second and looked at the strangely purple hue of the rock beneath their feet. "I don't know why, but... what else can we do?" 

"I... I wish I knew," he answered. "I don't have any other ideas. The Infimap isn't an option, and we must've combed through half the Ghost Zone by now."

"...shouldn't bother with..." 

His eyebrows lifted at the mumbling he barely caught. "What did you say?" 

"Why... Why are you bothering to help me so much?" Camry asked him, eyes flashing up to meet his glowing green ones. "I don't get it." 

Danny frowned at the question and looked to the side as he thought up a response. "Well... I can't really explain why. Maybe because I'm a superhero, or maybe because--"

"Well stop it." 

Her interruption caused his words to freeze in his throat. Perplexed, Danny's eyes widened. 

"Just stop, okay? It's obvious we're never going to find this guy. You don't have to keep wasting your time over me." Her hands were balled into fists at her sides, and though neither of them noticed it, wisps of grey smoke were curling up from between her fingers. 

"Camry, are you being serious right now?" he asked, holding his hands out at either side. "What're you talking about? We just have to keep looking and we'll find him soon. I know it!" 

"No, you _don't_ ," she snapped, stalking forward a handful of steps to stand directly in front of him. "You _don't_ 'know it!' We've been searching for _days_ , but it's not getting us anywhere." Her mind conjured up memories of him yawning incessantly because of Skulker's persistence hunting, and of Sam's intense warning a few days prior. 

It was like a shadow had fallen over her. "Look, Danny, just... I appreciate everything you've done for me, but let's stop kidding ourselves. We are never finding Clockwork, and I'm never getting home. I'll never see Saoirse again..." Hot tears welled up in her eyes but didn't fall. "So please, just leave me alone." 

Camry turned away from him and hugged herself. Her teeth ached from gritting them so hard. Danny's mouth, previously open in shock at her words, closed as he mulled over what she had said. Then he put a hand up and reached to touch her shoulder while saying, "Camry, I--" 

He didn't make contact because she whipped around, fists whirling with force as she spun, and shouted, _"Leave me alone!"_ A bright heat flared up between them, taking shape in a burst of orange fire that stopped Danny in his tracks. The tears dripping down her face hissed and fizzled as they boiled like water droplets in a hot pan. 

"Just leave me alone," Camry repeated, her voice cracking. She turned away and walked to the edge of the floating cliff, then sat down and drew her knees up to her chin. Hugging her legs, she hid her face and focused on breathing through the smell of smoke and fire filling her nostrils. 

There was the sound of hesitant footsteps idling in the decision between staying and leaving, followed by an engine starting up. Danny left, but not before calling out to her, "Fine, but I hope you're sure about what you're doing." 

It wasn't until the engine's rumbling began to fade that Camry sat up straight suddenly and looked all around, eyes wide and still damp with tears. "Wuh... Huh? Wait a sec-- what just happened?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ohhhhhhh snap.
> 
> Please leave a comment down below to show you're still interested and want me to keep writing this! I love all of your feedback (see what I did there, with the title and all? *poke poke, nudge nudge* Okay, yeah, I'll shut up now) Thank you for reading! See you in the next chapter!


	12. Chapter 12

RECAP:

It wasn't until the engine's rumbling began to fade that Camry sat up straight suddenly and looked all around, eyes wide and still damp with tears. "Wuh... Huh? Wait a sec-- what just happened?" 

\-------------------------------------------

"It has come to our attention that you may not be taking this matter as seriously as you should, Clockwork." 

Two Observants faded into existence in the inner sanctum of Clockwork's tower as their words echoed around the chamber. The aforementioned ghost of time rolled his crimson eyes silently before turning to face them. "And what would lead you to a conclusion like that?"

"Isn't it obvious?" the one on the right replied, gesturing with a long-nailed hand at the circular screen just behind Clockwork. A relatively uninhabited sector of the Ghost Zone was displayed there, featuring a short, blue-haired girl crying into her knees on a floating plateau. "She is nearing a pivotal point in her timeline, and what are you doing about it? Nothing!" 

"I wouldn't be so quick to say I'm doing 'nothing,'" Clockwork replied, shifting from his adult form to an old man. "However, her upcoming choice is what determines the course of future events. Far be it from me to influence her decision. Free will still exists, I'll have you know." 

"We did not task you with altering the future by sitting back and _watching_ , Clockwork," the Observant on the left spoke up in a tight, disembodied voice. "You must eliminate her to ensure she doesn't choose incorrectly."

"Doesn't she have 50/50 odds nevertheless?" he pointed out, now a chubby-cheeked child. "And besides, I have managed to alter things somewhat... indirectly."

"How?" they said together. "By _moving your tower?_ " 

"Indeed. It has proven a useful tool in this girl's outcome. Trust me; have I ever steered the future wrong?" Clockwork's knowing smile had the Observants sharing side-eyed glances with one another before they bowed out of his tower without another word. 

He turned back to his viewing portal and let out a gentle sigh as he watched Camry cry. "Let's hope you make the right choice when it's presented to you, child."

~~~

"He l-left. Wh-Why did he leave? What did I-I _say?_ " Camry fretted between hiccups and sobs. "Wh-What's going on?" From that point on, her words dissolved into nonsensical mumbles drenched with saltwater. 

Her all-consuming fear, as much as it should have made her aware of her surroundings, did the opposite of what was expected. Therefore, she didn't hear anyone approaching until they were hovering mere feet away from her huddled form.

The newcomer cautiously kept her distance as she took in the sight of the young, crying girl. She was obviously some sort of ghost by the way her core resonated with the newcomer's, but why did she seem so weak? Did it simply mean she was a lower level in power, or was she still developing her core and, thereby, a spirette?

"Hello there."

Camry's breath halted in her throat as her head whipped up to look at who had spoken. To her surprise, the ghost before her was a women with a long blonde braid and noticeably green complexion. Perhaps the most peculiar feature about her was the way she was dressed: the conservative, pale blue gown hearkened back to the early 1900s, if Camry had to guess its origins. The look on the new ghost's face was one of kind concern, but she shrank back like a cornered animal nonetheless.

"Are you alright?" she asked Camry as she touched down nearby on the rocky ledge. She sat on her haunches to be more eye-to-eye, but Camry didn't move an inch from her curled-up posture that hid the lower half of her face behind her knees. "Are you lost?"

Cam simply trembled imperceptibly without speaking, and the new ghost raised an eyebrow. "What are you doing this far out in the Ghost Zone?"

Again, Camry remained mute out of fear. Her red-orange eyes flicked from feature to feature, rapidly assessing any kind of potential danger. The modestly-dressed ghost glanced down at herself to make sure there wasn't anything on her before extending a kind hand out to shake. "My name is Dorathea, but you can call me Dora. What's your name?"

Dora didn't get a verbal reply right away; a sudden sharp cough erupted from Camry's mouth and had her covering it with both hands while her eyes closed. To her fearing surprise, something hot and thick fell into her palm, and when she opened her eyes she saw a little puddle of glowing orange sludge. Camry yelped and flung it away, watching it plummet over the edge and into the vast green reaches of the Ghost Zone.

"Wh-Wh-What w- _was_ that?" the spirette cried out, still trying to shake off what clung to her hand. The goo was hot, but not unbearably so, and had left an ashen taste in her mouth. As it cooled on her skin, the color began to darken as it hardened.

Dora's red eyes were wide throughout the entire experience, but they relaxed as she saw the odd substance hardening. "You're a spirette, aren't you," she asked knowingly.

"P-Please don't kidnap me," Camry whispered, shying away as her arms went around herself protectively.

" _Kidnap_ you?" Dora echoed, incredulous. "That's absurd! No, no, I would never even dream of doing that. What's your name?"

"I'm... I'm Camry," she replied at long last.

"Camry? That's a nice name. I've never heard it before," Dora said cheerfully. "Camry, are you alright? You don't usually find many ghosts this far out in the Zone."

"I... I-I don't know why I'm here," Camry sniffled. "I was with a friend, a-and then I think I blacked out o-or something 'cause the next thing I knew, he was leaving w- _without_ me."

"Oh, no," she murmured, a and daintily flying up to her lips. "It must be negative feedback."

"Negative feedback?"

Dora rose to reposition herself on her rear, letting her feet hang off the cliff's edge. "Negative feedback is... Well, not all ghosts are necessarily mean. Some are, though. It's for a number of reasons, but one of the biggest ones is something we call 'negative feedback.' When a ghost is first formed, they don't have a developed core. As your core develops, it reacts to the stressors you come in contact with, and negative ones have a severe effect.

"If you have too much negative feedback, your personality can become warped, and you'll have a predisposition to cause chaos. Positive feedback lets your personality remain intact."

Camry's eyes looked like they could pop out of their sockets at any moment. "S-So... I could become a bad person if I'm around too much negativity?"

"Yes, in a way," Dora replied. "It's... not easy to stay positive when you're among the dead."

"... I'm not a bad person," Camry muttered into her knees as she looked away from Dora. Her eyes narrowed to glare out at the horizon, which was indistinguishable between land and "sky."

Dora pursed her lips in thought for a moment, then turned her gaze to look up above them. "Camry?"

"Hm?" she hummed absentmindedly.

"I have an idea. You're in need of a place to stay, aren't you?"

Though a bit hesitantly, Camry nodded and looked at Dora out of the corner of her eye.

"Why don't you come stay with me?" She smiled warmly at the distraught girl. "My realm has more than enough room, and I could train you to control your powers-- namely, that lava you just spat up."

"That was _lava_?" Camry shrieked as she looked at the palm of her hand. Dark flakes of rock clung to the folds and seams of her skin. ' _Lava rock?_ No _way_.'

"It was," she said. "And I'm afraid it's only going to happen more often if you don't learn how to use your powers safely."

"Oh, no...!" Camry fretted, eyes growing wider.

"But I can help you learn to control it!" Dora added quickly, seeing the oncoming panic in Camry's expression. "It would not be a problem, I'm sure."

"You... You want to help me, and in exchange for what, exactly?" she asked suspiciously, brushing off her rock-encrusted hand.

"Well..." Dora hummed in thought. "It's nothing really big. It's in my interest to keep negative feedback from affecting ghosts because they could become my enemies. Plus, I've been wanting to teach someone for quite a while, and I haven't found anyone until now."

Camry's lips pressed into a thin line as she mulled over the answer. It sounded legitimate enough, and this ghost didn't appear to mean her any harm-- certainly not to the extent Skulker had shown. Maybe this was a good idea...

"I guess... If you're offering," she agreed in a small voice. "Th-Thanks, Dora."

Dora beamed at her and got to her feet, then extended a hand down to help her new pupil up. She accepted it and brushed off her clothes with both hands, then looked at the taller ghost. "So... Where are we going?"

~~~

"See? It's as I told you before. I didn't cheat this time, and she made the decision all on her own. She is on the right path after all."

The Observants would have frowned distastefully if they had mouths to emote with. "You still accept responsibility for whatever happens next, Clockwork," said one.

"You are gaining quite a number of responsibilities," commented the other. "Make sure you can keep track of them all."

"I know what I'm doing," Clockwork assured them. They left then, disappearing soundlessly.

Alone once again, he allowed himself a soft smile at the viewing portal trained on current events. 

~~~

"Wait. Hang on a sec," Camry said as she clung to Dora's side. "Is that a castle?"

Indeed it was, and it grew larger and larger as they flew over leafy trees and lush, grassy knolls. The stone structure had a weathered appearance and missing pieces from walls and towers; to Camry, every single 'blemish' was a photo opportunity with a story to tell.

Dora smiled at the awed look on her student's face. "That's my home. Although, we're in the middle of remodeling it at the moment." Camry raised an eyebrow curiously, which prompted Dora to explain further.

"It's a bit of a long story, but... For 1600 years, this realm belonged to my, ehm, very _controlling_ brother, Aragon, and he kept time from moving forward. We were stuck in the Dark Ages for such a long time. Then, a few months ago, a girl named Sam came here and showed me that I was just as strong as my brother, and together we overthrew his rule. Now time has moved forward incredibly quickly ever since. I think right now it's the equivalent of the human world's 1910s."

"Sam? Does she have dark hair?" Camry inquired. To her surprise, Dora nodded. "No way! I know her."

"You do? How is she?" Dora asked happily.

"I think she's well-- not that I have any frame of reference to go by, of course. I've only known her for about a week," she explained.

By then, Dora had alighted at the entrance to the castle and turned to face Camry directly. "Are you ready to go in?" The feeling of excitement she gave off was almost tangible.

Camry, on the other hand, immediately tensed up at the question. When was she ever ready for anything? "U-Uh..."

"Are you nervous, Camry?" Dora asked. The younger girl nodded rapidly, and Dora put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "You've got nothing to fear. Nothing in there is going to harm you, nor will you be treated poorly. I'll take care of everything."

She sucked in a deep, slow breath, just like her therapist had taught her, and let it out calmly. "Okay. I'm sorry, I've just... A lot has happened in hardly any time at all," Camry explained with an awkward little chuckle.

"You're alright," Dora assured her with a smile. "Now, let's go in and get you settled. I've got the perfect room you can stay in! It has a balcony looking over the forest, and it's right next to..."

As she rambled on about Camry's new room and the castle in general, they entered through the front gate and strolled in like they owned the place-- and in Dora's case, she did. The walls were adorned with old-fashioned electric lamps and richly colored drapes, and the windows were tall and wide to let in plenty of natural sunlight. Amazingly enough, when Camry glanced out one of those windows, she didn't see a single hint of the Ghost Zone's green sky; the horizon was as blue with daytime as it was in the human world.

"Madame, who is this you have brought with you?" another ghost asked as she came up to Dora and looked Camry over with scrutinizing red eyes. Her skin was also as green as Dora's, but her hair was a dark brown and twisted into twin braids that rested on her shoulder blades.

"Madison, this is Camry," Dora introduced while putting her hand on Camry's shoulder again. "She's to be my new pupil, and she will be staying in the guest room with the balcony."

"Wonderful to meet you, Miss Camry," Madison said with a small curtsy that Camry hesitantly copied. "I work for Madame here in the castle, so let me know if you ever need anything."

"Oh, okay," Cam replied, clearly taken aback by such unusually respectful treatment. "Thank you, Madison. I-It's nice to meet you, too."

"Did anything come up while I was out?" Dora inquired, to which Madison shook her head 'no.'

"No, Madame. The renovations are running smoothly."

"Wonderful. Come on, Camry, let's go see your room."

After a flight of stairs and a few confusing corners, Dora and Camry stopped in front of a wooden door with a wrought iron handle. Dora wrenched it open it effortlessly and allowed Camry to step in first so she could get the best first look at her new, temporary home.

The bed was twin-sized, with the headboard pushed up against the right wall and allowing room on either side. Its duvet was a dark forest green, and two fluffy pillows rested underneath. There was also a dresser, a nightstand by the bed, two swinging doors for a closet, and a pair of French doors that led to the aforementioned balcony. Dora hadn't been joking; the view over the treetops was incredible!

To the left of the main door, in the adjacent wall, sat a single, mysterious door that Camry's curiosity wouldn't let her ignore. She turned the handle, which matched the one on the main door, and discovered a white tile floor. A private bathroom! The tub had clawed feet, and the mirror over the sink was as wide as a plasma screen TV.

"This is awesome!" Camry gasped, turning back to look out at her new room. The walls, a pale beige color, helped make the room feel less like a guest room and more like a natural getaway. "I still can't believe you're letting me stay here... Thank you, Dora!"

"Of course," Dora replied, smiling happily at her gratitude. "It's no trouble at all." She paused for a moment, as if she were weighing options in her head, and then spoke. "I thought we might get started with training in an hour or two. I know you only just got here, but it's usually best to learn control of your powers sooner rather than later."

"That makes sense," Camry agreed as she sank down on the edge of the bed to get a feel for its springiness. "What do we do in training?"

"Honing your powers will be our top priority, so we'll try summoning different abilities first and see where that takes us," she explained. "However... I think I ought to suggest you getting cleaned up a little before we do anything of the sort." The pointed look Camry received made her look down at her clothes, which were predictably stained from excessive wearing.

"Uh, y-yeah, I'm with you on that," Camry said, rubbing the back of her neck awkwardly. "Although these are the only clothes I have to wear..."

"Check in the closet," Dora giggled with a gesture toward it. Camry rose, a skeptical eyebrow lifted higher than the other, and padded over on bare feet to open the twin doors at the same time. What met her eyes was rather unexpected, to say the least.

"Oh, whoa," she breathed, reaching for the nearest dress to pull it down from the hanger. "These are a lot of dresses."

"I'm sure at least one of them will fit you well enough," Dora said as she came up beside Camry and also snatched up one of the gowns. Their styles were definitely anything but modern with their long skirts and small bodices. "If you clean up first, then we can try some of these on to find one that fits."

~

"Wow... What am I even _doing_..." Eyebrows furrowed contemplatively, I sank lower in the claw-footed tub until my mouth was completely submerged. Despite how chilly the water felt on my skin, clouds of obvious steam wafted into the air and curled toward the ceiling, rendering the mirror useless. I allowed my gaze to wander around the bathroom and take in the various sights. 

Hanging on a hook was a white bathrobe, and folded up-- so neatly that I could have been in the Ritz, might I add-- was a towel made of the same material. A slanted skylight allowed the sun to illuminate the room, and I could see fluffy clouds dotting that sliver of blue beyond the glass. Everywhere was white tile and elegantly crafted embellishments, from the frame around the mirror to the handles on the sink. 'Did I _really_ just agree to be some strange ghost's apprentice? Where did my common sense go? I mean, sure, she's been nothing but kind since I met her, but still. Saoirse would be out of her _mind_ if she knew how reckless I'm being. If I didn't need to learn how to control these stupid 'powers,' I'd be looking for a way home right now.' 

I shifted in the tub a little, jostling the otherwise calm water and sending a drop or two over the sides. 'I wonder how many people are missing me right now... I feel bad for my parents, and Saoirse. They have no idea what's going on or where I am-- not that they would believe me if I told them. This is so insane. I've gotta find a way home, and fast. Maybe I won't be a 'spirette' or a ghost or whatever when I get back to my own time. That'd be nice~' 

Third POV~

"Miss Camry?" Madison's silvery voice called through the door and startled Camry into sitting up straight in the water. More spilled over the side, and she flinched at the sight of the mess she'd made. "Madame Dora is requesting your presence shortly. Do you need any assistance finishing or getting dressed?" 

"U-Uh, no! No, thank you," she stammered in reply, running a quick hand through her soggy, short blue hair. "I'll get out in just a sec, Madison. Thanks. O-Oh, and you don't have to use the 'Miss' in front of my name. 'Camry' is totally fine."

"Are you sure, Miss?" Madison asked, sounding a little surprised despite how composed she kept herself.

"Definitely," Cam assured her confidently as she rose, stepped onto a floor mat, and wrapped herself in the white towel waiting for her. 

"If... If it's what you prefer, then alright," she said. "Call for me if you need any help with the dress, Camry." 

Wearing the towel like a dress, Camry stood in front of the huge mirror and properly took in the sight of herself. Her hair had, of course, darkened from the bath, but she knew it would lighten as it dried. That wasn't what held her main focus, however; she leaned in closer to the mirror and pulled down one of her lower eyelids ever so slightly to get a better look at the iris's new color. 

"Sphalerite, huh? Okay, I guess I can work with that. How weird, though, going from iolite to sphalerite. Then again, Danny goes from, what, blue topaz to peridot when he transforms, so maybe this is normal. Normal for ghosts, that is." 

She stepped back from the mirror, shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly, and slipped into the soft robe before exiting the bathroom. Now it was time to figure out how to put on one of those early-20th century dresses and still train in it. 'Oh, the joy.'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woohoo!! So, I know you guys are probably wondering what exactly is going on with this story, but trust me. I do have a plan (for once)! Also, the gems thing will eventually be explained, so not to worry ^_^
> 
> So, thank you for reading and I'll see you guys in the next chapter! Thanks for sticking with me so far~


	13. Chapter 13

"I, uh, never really thought I'd be training in something like this," Camry commented to her new teacher as she held onto her skirts and picked her way across an expansive dirt field. Lining one edge were half a dozen round, metal targets painted with black and red bull's-eyes. Dora waited for her about fifty yards away from the targets and looked as poised and elegant as any royalty would. "Is this at all practical for training?" 

Her dress had two main parts to it: a cream-colored slip that reached the ground and had a tight-fitting bodice, and a forest green cover with loose sleeves and an even darker sash to tie around her waist. Try as she did to figure out putting it on herself, Madison had eventually been called on to assist lacing up the back and tie the sash behind Camry. When Dora caught sight of her in the dress, she clapped her hands together once happily and tilted her head to the side. 

"You look adorable!" Dora said appraisingly. "Dresses really do suit you, Camry." 

"Th-Thank you," Camry stuttered in response, feeling her cheeks light on fire-- not in the literal sense, of course. "But am I really going to be able to train in a dress? The hem is so long, even after Madison pinned it up."

"Yes, you are a bit on the short side," Dora agreed, placing a hand on her chin as she scrutinized Madison's clever handiwork and Camry's diminutive stature. "But you won't be needing to do much moving around for now, so there's no need to worry. We're going to work on figuring out what sorts of powers you have today." 

"And how're we doing that?" she asked while looking around Dora to take in the sight of the targets. "With those?" 

"Not this time, no. Here, I want you to stand with your back straight and your arms at your sides," Dora instructed, using gentle nudges wherever necessary to get Camry into the right pose. "Relax your shoulders, and take a deep breath. Close your eyes." Camry obeyed, letting her eyelids slide shut as she exhaled quietly. "Your core is your center; it's where all your energy and power come from. Stay relaxed as you follow my instructions. I want you to-- Camry, your shoulders are tense again." 

Her eyes opened to see Dora looking a little perplexed, and she sucked in another deep breath. "S-Sorry, I, uh... I get anxious really easily. I'll try to stay relaxed." 

Dora nodded, and Camry closed her eyes once more while her mentor resumed in a calming voice. "Reach for your core. Feel all your untapped potential waiting for you in the place furthest from your grasp, and latch onto it. Your fire is in there, waiting for you to claim it." 

There was a long stretch of silence between them as the younger girl's eyebrows furrowed with concentration and Dora looked on expectantly. The relative quiet was broken after a moment when Camry slowly asked, "And... _how_ exactly do I reach for it?" 

"Have you not once summoned your powers before?" Dora asked, incredulous at the mere idea. "Surely you must have. That lava you spat up was a part of one power." 

"Well..." Camry trailed off and stared at the ground while wrapping her arms around herself. Her mind wandered to when things had gotten fuzzy in her head only a little while before Dora had come across her, crying on that rock. The vague memory of the events that caused Danny to leave were wrapped in smoke, leaving only impressions of heat and anger. She flinched at the anger, feeling it surge ever so slightly in her blood before settling back down again. "I-I think I might have... when I had that negative feedback you mentioned earlier. The thing that made my friend leave me behind." 

"Well, we can't have that," Dora said, placing her hands casually on her hips. "Your powers have to have some sort of basis on more than just negative emotions. Otherwise, it would be difficult for you to learn proper control of them.

"Maybe fire is a bit too advanced for the beginning. How about flying? Have you flown before, or even just hovered in one place?" 

The blue-haired spirette shook her head mutely, and Dora pursed her purple-colored lips in thought. "Hmmm... What about turning invisible?"

"Before I went through the portal for the first time, only ghosts could see me," Camry offered hopefully. 

"That's not quite the same, unfortunately," Dora sighed. "If you haven't done it on purpose, then it can't really be considered a power you've used yet. That's just a property of being a spirette, I'm afraid."

"Oh. But I also couldn't touch a lot of things when I wasn't around a ghost," she piped up. "Is that a property, too?" 

When Dora nodded, Camry's face fell. "So... I haven't used any of my powers yet. Do I even _have_ powers?" 

"Of course you do!" A tiny little laugh escaped Dora's throat before she explained. "Every ghost has powers, even if they're not very strong. And you most certainly have the potential for great power-- I could see it when you spat up that lava. That usually doesn't ever happen to weak ghosts with fire cores. We just have to work hard if we're to unlock your powers and help you master control of them." 

"Yeah, about that whole lava thing," Camry began as she twirled a strand of hair near her face around her index finger over and over. "Is that gonna become, like, a regular thing? Or was that the one and only time?"

"Oh, ah, well," she hemmed, clearly not wanting to be the bearer of bad news. "Actually, I imagine it's going to become rather frequent until your core further develops." Her tone shifted suddenly from somewhat apologetic to peppy in a flash. "But the sooner you master your training, the sooner that will stop. So let's make sure to work hard, and together we'll help you control your powers!" 

"A-Are you serious?" Camry exclaimed, her eyes wide in disbelief. "I'm gonna keep _puking up lava_ until I figure this out? Isn't there something you can do to make it stop?" 

"I'm sorry, but there isn't anything I can do about it," Dora said, placing a consoling hand on her pupil's shoulder. "This is just the nature of ghosts with fire cores. I know what that was like, to spit up lava. When I first became a ghost and used this amulet," She gestured to her pendant that bore what looked like a large, green reptilian eye as the centerpiece, "I was sick in bed for an entire fortnight because it was so hard to move around. My core was still developing and getting used to this amulet's strange power, so it was not a pleasant point in time."

"What does your amulet do?" Camry asked curiously, peering at the medallion carefully. The intense detail on the iris was so lifelike that she half-expected it to blink at her. 

Dora lifted the necklace up to look at her reflection in the green eye. "It allows me to turn into a dragon. Would you like to see?"

Eyes wide and mouth agape, Camry nodded her head in awed silence. Her teacher smiled and stood back, closing her eyes to concentrate on her power. Before Cam's very eyes, wings sprouted and light blue scales took over Dora's green skin. In a matter of seconds, the kind woman had been replaced by a tall, imposing dragon with green horns and a ridge of the same color all down her back and tail. 

"Whoa... Dora, that's amazing!" she cheered, unable to tear her eyes away and unwilling to. "How did you _do_ that?" 

"It's the power of the amulet," she explained, somehow still able to talk normally as a dragon. "While I'm transformed, care for a ride?"

"You're asking me if I want to take a ride on a dragon," Cam said dully, then immediately launched into giddiness and dashed right up to Dora's side. " _Of course_ I do!"

~~

"Wait, so you _left_ her in the _Ghost Zone?_ " Sam exclaimed, flinging her hands into the air. "Danny, what were you _thinking?_ That's where Skulker and all the other ghosts that are out to get her are!"

"I know, but she told me to leave her alone!" Danny retorted defensively, folding his arms over his chest. "What else was I supposed to do?" 

"Maybe not leave her stranded in another dimension, dude," Tucker suggested sternly. "Why would she tell you that, though?"

"I dunno. She got really mad all of a sudden, and kind of depressed, too. Then she told me to stop wasting time over her and blew up in my face!" He sighed, putting a hand on his forehead for a moment. "It was super weird, actually." 

"She probably just got stressed out and snapped," Sam hypothesized. "We haven't been having much luck with finding Clockwork, after all." 

"You're right," he said, rising from his bed and standing tall. "C'mon, let's go find her."

Together, the three of them phased down into the lab and crammed into the Specter Speeder. After starting it up and opening the portal doors, they zoomed through it and into the Ghost Zone, leaving behind a trail of exhaust in their wake. Sam pressed a red button on the console and activated the scanners, which popped up in front of them with a green layout of the Zone. "Where did you leave her?" she asked quickly. 

"Uh... It was kind of a remote spot," Danny admitted as he steered them in the general direction of the spot he was thinking of. "But if she's not there, the scanners should pick up her location." 

Finally, after what felt like almost an hour of flying in the speeder, they came up alongside the same little cliff that Danny and Camry had visited earlier. Some of the only evidence that they had been there were a couple of scorch marks on the rock and grooves in the dirt, signifying where the speeder had been parked. He put the speeder down in the same spot and hopped out, walking over to where Camry had sat down on the edge after yelling at him. There was a pair of char marks there, too; those flames she'd conjured from her hands had to have been the cause. When he inhaled deeply, Danny could still smell a faint trace of smoke in the air. 

"She's not here anymore," Tucker sighed, glancing in all directions at the swirling green void surrounding them. "Where would she have gone?" 

"I think I have an idea," Danny answered as he turned back toward the Specter Speeder. "But I don't think she would have gone there on her own. Let's go pay Skulker a visit." 

~~

"Maybe that's enough training for one day," Dora said, disappointment worming its way into her tone despite her cheery attitude. 

The ever-perceptive Camry caught on to it and frowned even more as she concentrated. "No, no, I can do this! Just a... little... longer...!" Her palms faced each other, fingers bent to form something resembling a cage, as she tried to summon ectoplasmic energy between her hands. Not long after their ride had finished, she had managed to make a couple of green sparks, but ever since then there had been no change whatsoever. 

Dora put a hand on Camry's shoulder and made her look up from her focus. "It's alright, Camry. This isn't easy for a beginner, and you've been making progress nonetheless. Let's turn in the for the night and start again in the morning." As if to punctuate her suggestion, the sun was in the middle of setting on the horizon, turning the sky fiery shades of pink and orange. 

She relaxed her muscles and let her hands drop to her sides. "Okay... Am I really making progress, though? It doesn't feel like it at all."

"You most certainly have!" Dora clapped her hands together once as she spoke. "Why, while you were so busy focusing on creating ecto energy between your hands, you didn't even notice when you turned invisible for almost an entire minute."

"I did?" Camry gasped, looking down at her long skirts as if they would have some sort of evidence hidden in their folds. "I was invisible?" 

"You were. And it wasn't just a part of you-- it was your entire body, which is something a lot of ghosts have to work up to over time." Her teacher smiled kindly at her, clearly meaning her happiness. "I told you, you have potential. It's just untapped." 

"But we'll get there," Camry agreed, clenching her hands into confident fists in the air. 

"We will!" Dora held up a hand, and Camry obliged with an enthusiastic high-five before they started back toward the castle. 

That night, after washing off the dust from the training grounds and snacking on some fruit and nuts for a light meal, Camry turned in for the night and pulled the dark green covers up to her chin. Rolling onto her side, she spied her camera that sat patiently on the nightstand beside the large bed. Her hands were reaching for it before she consciously realized it, and they automatically found their correct places to hold it for a snapshot. As moonlight streamed through the French double doors that opened onto the balcony, she kicked off the sheets and walked out into the cool night air. 

"Let's take a shot of that moonlit view," she whispered to herself, and lined up her scope with the horizon. There was a decent chance the picture wouldn't capture as much as her human eye saw, but what was the harm in trying? At home, she had plenty more rolls of film where this one came from. 

The photo printed, and she leaned her back against the balcony's rail while it developed. Slowly, the image became clearer and clearer until she could see it under the silvery moonlight. 'Whoa, this looks great! I've gotta save this one to bring home with me.

'It's too bad the moonlight is so weak here, though. It's nothing like back home... There, I could get the best nighttime pics _ever_. Why is it different if I only went back in time? Shouldn't more things be the saaa--' "Oh my god!" she gasped, latching onto the rail with her free hand so as to steady herself. "Is that even _possible?_ Are there really other dimensions out there? Oh, _duh_ , I'm in one right now. But is my time... _actually_ another dimension entirely?" 

Eyes wide and mind reeling, her elbows found a resting place on the rail, and she stared out over the view without really seeing it. "Oh my god... Oh my god..."

When dawn finally broke over the horizon, Madison and Dora found her still on the balcony and in the exact same position, with her hands supporting her chin and her elbows on the rail. "Camry? Are you alright?" Dora fretted, her hands taking hold of Cam's upper arms and helping her stand straighter. "Have you been out here all night?"

"Wha--?" Camry mumbled, blinking sleepily. "Uh... I, uh... Mind was... Is it morning already?" 

"Yes! Don't you see the sunrise?" She used a sweeping gesture with one hand to indicate the brilliant display of pale yellows, pinks, and blues painted across the sky. "Did you sleep at all?" 

"I... I think I did, but..." she murmured as she rubbed one eye with the heel of her hand. "I'm actually not all that tired, for some reason." 

"Madison, would you set out her clothes for the day?" Dora asked of the worried-looking Madison, who nodded and went back inside to do just that. "Thank you. Camry, how long have you been a ghost-- er, a spirette, I should say?" 

"About a week, I think?" Cam guessed. Now that she was talking with somebody, her brain had begun to wake up from her pseudo-sleep. 

"That long? Oh, my... After a week or so, most spirettes gradually lose the need to sleep," Dora explained as she led her pupil back into her temporary bedroom. 

"Really?" she whined. "I like sleeping, though... Most of the time, anyway." 

"You can still try to sleep, but it won't do you quite as much good as it once did." The frown on her face was one of contemplation. "But perhaps this is good timing, after all. We could make use of the extra time to practice." 

"So, do ghosts not sleep?" Camry asked, wringing the front of her borrowed, plain white nightgown absentmindedly. 

"Only when we get very, very bored," Dora said with a girlish chuckle. 

Continuing to still wring her hands, but only after dropping her nightgown to keep it from getting ruined by wrinkles, she asked, "A-And... will I stop doing... _other_ things?"

"'Other' things?" she echoed, an eyebrow lifting. "What exactly do you mean?"

"I-It's just... well... I've been noticing some things happening lately. Like how I wasn't all that hungry last night even though we'd been training for so long. And after I almost starved earlier, it didn't take that much food to help me feel better. Do ghosts not eat, either?" By the tremor in her tone and the way her face had lit up with dread, Dora could immediately tell Camry had been dwelling on this topic for a long time. 

Before answering, the much older and wiser ghost put her arm around Camry's shoulders and steered her back inside, where they sat on the edge of her bed without breaking contact. "Camry... I understand that this is all very new and scary to you. You _are_ taking this much better than I did when I was in the same position as you are now. So, because I know what this feels like, I know for a fact that you'll want honest answers." She pulled in a deep breath, let it out, and then continued. "Which is why, if you have questions about being a ghost, or your powers, or the Ghost Zone, or anything of the sort, I won't try to sweeten things for you too much. But you can _always_ come to me and ask me about anything at all. That's a promise as your teacher _and_ friend." 

Starstruck by Dora's heartfelt sincerity, Camry felt tears prickling in her eyes as she twisted her torso enough to hug the royal ghost around her middle. Dora automatically returned it, squeezing the smaller girl gently. "Thank you, Dora," Camry whispered, relishing in the feeling of such unconditional support.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope this chapter wasn't boring for you guys to read. There will be plenty of action in the next one, though, as the trio pays Skulker a visit and Camry gets to do some training that'll progressively get more intense. After all, it makes sense to work your way up to the really hard stuff. See you in the next chapter!


	14. Chapter 14

"Special delivery!" 

"Wha--? _Aah!_ " 

Skulker shouted as he was sent careening into a wide tree trunk from a sturdy blow to his back. Being the tough hunter he always claimed to be, he was on his feet a second later and whipping out a laser gun to fight back. Hovering a few feet above the ground was Danny, looking incredibly peeved and ready to go at least a few rounds mano-a-ghosto with Skulker. 

"What are you doing here, ghost _brat?_ " Skulker demanded, taking aim. "Oh, wait, that's right. It doesn't matter!" He pulled the trigger, sending a ray of electricity Phantom's way. He easily sidestepped it and dove in, fist pulled back in preparation to send Skulker flying once more. 

"I hope you realize you're just handing yourself over to me," Skulker commented as he rose again, brushing dirt off of his robotic arms. "There's no way you can beat me, whelp."

"Guess again, nut job," Danny bantered, turning invisible and slipping underneath the soil to come up firing an ectoblast at Skulker's rear end. He created a graceful, rainbow-like arc through the air, even as his arms and legs flailed around uselessly. "Heheh, get it? Like nuts and bolts?"

"Hilarious, Danny," Sam commented sarcastically, safe in the Specter Speeder with Tucker a few dozen yards back from the fight. "Can you just get to the point, though? We have English homework."

"Okay, okay. But that felt good anyway," he justified, popping his shoulder joint before flying over to where Skulker was once again picking himself up from the dirt. "Alright, Skulker. Where are you hiding her?"

"Hiding who?" the hunter retorted, glaring at his teenage enemy. "I don't have a clue what you're going on about."

"Don't play dumb," Danny said, his eyebrows drawn close together with determination. "You know exactly who I'm talking about. Where's Camry?" 

"Are you talking about the spirette?" he asked, looking entirely and honestly confused. "You think _I_ have her?" 

" _You_ were the one hunting her," Danny pointed out, dropping down to stand on the ground and keeping his arms folded over his chest. "Who else would have taken her?" 

It was a rhetorical question, but Skulker answered it anyway. "As a spirette, any and all ghosts would target her. It's narrow-minded of you to assume _I_ would be the only one." 

"As if you can talk about narrow-minded, Mr. 'I will have your pelt on my wall if it's the last thing I do,'" Danny quipped. "But what exactly do you mean? _Every_ ghost would hunt her?" 

Skulker's face settled into a deadpan. "You don't _really_ expect me to be the only one. Spirettes are rare and valuable to ghosts of all kinds-- not just the hunters." 

"How exactly are they 'valuable?'" Tucker asked over the speeder's speaker system; he used both hands to make air quotes around the adjective. 

~

"Wait, _what?_ Can you say that one more time?" Camry asked, her fiery eyes wide in both surprise and confusion. 

"The reason ghosts are after you is because they see you as a potential henchman," Dora repeated. "Well, perhaps 'henchwoman' is more accurate. You _did_ just ask why ghosts are after you."

"But how does that work? Why would I work with someone who tries to _kidnap_ me?" she asked, using rather exaggerated gestures with her hands and arms as she talked. 

Dora let out a deep breath before launching into a more in-depth explanation. "When a spirette's core fully develops, they lose their memories of being a spirette and take on the personality dictated by their quality of feedback. Our cores... they are what hold us together and make us what we are as ghosts. I can't remember what it was like to be a spirette at all, though it was so long ago that there's really no use in trying." 

She let out a tiny, half-hearted little chuckle that carried a note of melancholy with it. "It can be rather barbaric, but a ghost that can find a spirette before their core forms has the chance to shape how a spirette forms in personality and allegiance." Dora bit her lower lip and looked down at the ground, her amulet clenched in one hand. "I'm just grateful you weren't taken hostage by any other ghosts before I found you, Camry. Your friend did a good job of protecting you from harm." 

This time it was Cam's turn to look at the floor, and she felt her cheeks flush with shame as she stared the floorboards down. Danny had been so selfless in keeping her out of harm's way, and he really had had her best interests at heart-- unlike a certain hunter ghost that had his robotic sights on her. Back when she must have had that outburst from negative feedback, she must have sounded ungrateful, when the exact opposite was really the case. 'What am I going to say to him...? If I ever see him again, that is...' 

"Now, I know how that makes me sound, but I hope you don't think of me as someone who would do anything like that," Dora continued while placing a hand over top of Camry's, which sat idly in her lap. "Because I would never even dream of trying to make you do something you wouldn't want to, or change you into something you're not. I narrowly escaped it myself, and I wouldn't want to see anyone else go through that... that..." For a split second, her pupils elongated into narrow, reptilian slits surrounded by brilliant red irises. "That _torture_."

One of Camry's hands slipped free from under Dora's and laid itself on top of the pile of mutual comforting. "Someone tried to manipulate your feedback?" she asked in a near-whisper.

"I don't remember it, exactly, but I pieced things together from my older brother's threats. When I found out..." Another sigh escaped her, and she lifted her ruby-colored eyes to meet Camry's gaze steadily. "I vowed I would never put anyone through the same experiences."

A moment of silence passed over them, and then Camry found herself smiling despite the heaviness of their topic. "I trust you, Dora. I might not be very well-versed in all this ghost-y stuff, but I like to think of myself as a good judge of character. You're not trying to manipulate me or do any of that awful stuff. And, honestly... You're a life saver. Er--! An afterlife saver." 

Dora's face lit up with a bright smile at that, and she rose from the edge of the bed after patting the back of Camry's hand. "Thank you, Camry. Now, up an' at 'em! We have a lot of ground to cover in your training today, and I won't have you distracting me." 

~

"Well, if _that's_ what you're after her for," Danny began slowly, using his coldest acid-green stare to look down at Skulker where his battered suit lay twitching and sparking on the ground, "then you can just forget about it right here and now, because I am not about to let you get ahold of Camry. And on a side note, if you keep up this persistence hunting thing you're on about, I'll make you regret it. How does a few weeks in the Thermos sound? Or a couple of _months?_ Capiche?" 

He reached a gloved hand down and lifted back the helmet to reveal Skulker's true, diminutive form. Dangling from between index and thumb, he looked about as threatening as a grasshopper. "Alright, fine! We'll call a temporary truce, _whelp_ , but mark my words: this isn't over!" 

"It never is," Danny replied with a roll of his eyes before flinging the tiny ghost away into the bushes; Skulker let out a high-pitched shriek that comically faded out as he disappeared from sight. Then Phantom was back in the driver's seat of the Specter Speeder and all too gladly leaving Skulker's island far, far behind him and his two friends. 

"Way to go, man! Temporary or not, you got him to stop that stupid hunting tactic!" Tucker cheered. 

"Now what? Do we look for Camry, or...?" Sam asked, trailing off as she tried to think of other options. 

Danny shook his head and shifted their course a few degrees to the left, which they all knew would take them back toward the Fentonworks portal. "I don't think we can find her on our own at this rate. She wouldn't register as a real-world item on the scanners because she's a spirette, and by now she could be just about anywhere in the Ghost Zone. It's probably a long shot to see Frostbite about the map, and Clockwork seems to have disappeared off the face of the Earth-- uh, Ghost Zone-- so what else can we do?"

"You mean _other_ than comb the whole zone? I got nothin', dude," Tucker sighed, slumping in his seat. 

"Maybe we can try Frostbite again tomorrow," Sam suggested hopefully. "But we can't just give up."

~~

"Today, I thought we would start with some invisibility exercises," Dora began, looking every bit the tutor she was in a matronly dress and sturdy riding boots. A pale pink bonnet matched her attire well and shielded her fair skin from the artificial sunlight. 

"Okay, how so?" Camry inquired, adjusting the waist of her boyish trousers. As much as it had pained Madison to comply with her wishes, the spirette had put her reasoning skills to good use and argued how it would make much more sense for her to train in pants than the extra lengths of flammable fabric known as 1910s-style skirts. The trade-off had been that she would only have one pair of pants until more could be made with her specific measurements, so she would have to be extra careful with her borrowed clothes. 

"Yesterday, when you attempted to summon ecto-energy between your hands, your entire body vanished for almost a full minute without you noticing," Dora recounted. "It was an incredible step in the right direction, but you need to be able to do it at will rather than by accident. That's why we're going to have a little fun running through the royal garden today. The challenge is that a handful of the castle guards, as well as myself, will also be in there with you; if any of us catch you, you'll be stung with some low, non-lethal levels of electricity and the whole attempt will reset." 

Camry frowned, casually folding her arms over her chest. "So... shock therapy is going to make me work harder at staying hidden. Okay, I kinda see how that would work. But does it _have_ to be shocks?" 

Her teacher giggled, a gloved hand hiding her mouth. "Oh, Camry. If it's pleasant, you wouldn't feel the need to try hard. Don't worry, it won't be _that_ bad. Ready?" 

She spun on her heel and gleefully led her pupil off the packed field, which was still lined on one side by those tempting targets. 'If only I could've summoned energy in my hands yesterday. Maybe I would've been able to practice shooting it at the targets' Camry thought wistfully before they turned around a corner of the castle grounds and were out of sight of the dirt field. When she brought her attention back to what was ahead, the photography nerd could hardly believe her eyes: looming over her (albeit already short) head was a hedge at least twenty feet tall, perhaps even taller, and an elegant wrought iron archway cutting the green, leafy wall in half. 

Four guards in dark blue uniforms stood at attention near the entrance. 'Those must be the ones Dora mentioned.' They saluted their princess as she drew near, and the one furthest from the archway stepped forward to report their readiness to participate in the exercise. 

"Excellent. Once my student goes in, we will allow her a three minute head start and then commence," Dora explained before spinning back to Camry and placing a hand on each of the shorter girl's shoulders. "The garden is surrounded by a puzzling maze, so do your best not to get lost. Your goal, other than not getting caught, is to make it to the center _without cheating_ and pick a flower from any of the beds. 

"If you run into trouble outside of the five of us, toll this bell," she continued while extracting said object from a pocket in her skirt. It glimmered gold under the warm sunlight, and the handle was gilded with delicate-looking roses. A matching hammer was attached by a long thread of dark pink ribbon. With the sides of her hands pressed together, palms up, Camry accepted the bell with curiosity, her gaze roaming all over its shining surface. "We'll come find you right away. But don't ring it if you run into something that's part of this exercise. Understand?"

"Crystal clear," Camry replied, stuffing the bell and hammer in one of the deep pockets on her pants. "I think I get the gist of it. Any tips for reaching the center?" 

"Well..." Dora put a hand on her chin and pursed her lips in thought. "Here, I'll tell you this much: the darker the leaves, the further you are from your goal." 

"Got it," she said, then turned and faced the intimidatingly high entrance. "Okay, here we go. Into the unknown." Hands curled into anxious fists at her sides, Camry stepped over the threshold and paused, as if she were anticipating something to leap out at her. Predictably, nothing of the sort happened whatsoever. She was faced with the decision to go either right of left; keeping one arm held out straight and her index finger pointed, Cam spun around and around and around on one toe, never once losing her balance, and kept her eyes closed until she stopped. She was pointing almost perfectly down the center of the left path, so that was the way she went. "Oh- _kayyy_. Bye!"

"If I may comment, Your Highness?" the guard that had spoken earlier asked, and Dora cheerfully nodded for him to continue. "I hope it's not out of line for me to say this, but your student is rather... peculiar." 

"She is, isn't she," Dora giggled, looking at the place where Camry had been spinning like a top. "I myself am growing rather fond of her."

Camry's POV~

"The maze can't be _that_ big, right? This'll be a snap!" I said, and tried to snap the middle finger and thumb of my right hand for emphasis. As usual, I barely made more than the sound of both fingers sliding against each other. "I'll figure out how to do that some day.

"Three minutes to get a head start, huh? Okay, and Dora said the leaves get lighter when I get closer to the center. I just gotta follow the leaves." My riding boots, which somehow fit my feet well despite having never worn them before in my life, made gentle squelching sounds on the dewy grass. Cast in such everlasting deep shadows, it was likely the ground was almost always damp. 

I came up to another split, this time going in three ways: left, right, and straight ahead. My hand wandered to the pocket with the bell to make sure it was still there, but since all of the leaves looked pretty much the same to me I decided to turn right. No matter what shape the maze was, going left and then right would put me at facing the same direction I had when I first entered the puzzle. This soon put me at another choice to go either straight or to the left. 

"Psh, straight. Not today," I snorted, waving a dismissive hand before eagerly skipping down the left path. The muddy ground squelched under my shoes, and I almost lost my footing when I came to a stop at the end of the row. "I should _probably_ be following the color of the leaves and not my own biases... But what the hey. Oh, look!" I dashed forward and came to a slippery halt at the corner of yet another four-pronged choice. The aisle turning right was _definitely_ lined with leaves that were a lighter shade of green. What's more, the track stretched on in that direction for almost a hundred yards and stopped with a dead end, but countless more openings branched out from either side. "Ooooh~" 

A sudden little shiver ran up my spine, and my better judgment told me it wasn't just because I stood in the shade. "Are my three minutes up already? Wow, that was fast. Okay, gotta hurry, gotta hurry-- and gotta stop talking to myself before I give myself away." 

I took off in a dash, letting my eyes glance briefly down each path as I passed it by. The fourth one down on the right side, definitely looked a degree or two lighter than the others, so I darted down that way but paused just past the entrance to look back behind me. No one was in sight, which was good news for me. 'Okay, okay. Awesome. They're never gonna find me, haha!' 

Of course, with only twists and turns to break up the monotony of walking in the maze, time seemed to slow to a crawl as the minutes _barely_ ticked by. By the time I could see a definite change in the color of the leaves, boredom made me let out an audible sigh. I rubbed one of the leaves between my thumb and fingers idly, wondering what kind of plant it was. " _Huhhh_... Getting _bored_ over herrre..." 

"What was that?" a male voice suddenly asked, and I clamped a hand over my mouth while pressing my back into the wall of thick foliage. There were no footsteps to alert me to his nearing presence, but his voice sounded like it belonged to one of the guards sent to help look for me. "Hmm..." 

The shadows just beyond the corner of a turn deepened, and I felt my breath hitch deep in the back of my throat. "Miss Camry, are you there?" 

'Please don't see me' I begged him silently, resisting the urge to sink further into the leaves; the movement would make a noise and tell him exactly where I was. 'Come on, turn invisible. Don't see me, don't see me.'

He drifted into view on a wispy tail, spared my lane a cursory glance, and continued on as if he'd merely imagined hearing my voice. "I wonder how far Miss Camry has gotten through this maze..." 

'He didn't see me' I realized, and gasped when I looked down at my legs. They weren't there! My entire body had vanished! 'I did it!' 

But the guard was still patrolling down the aisle, which meant I needed to stay invisible and sneak by him without getting caught. 'Sure, sure, I can do this. Nooo problem. I can stay hidden. Totally, totally, totally.' 

'But first, baby steps.' I stuck out my invisible foot and planted it on the wet grass, in plain view of the ghost guard, and got no reaction. His back faced me for the moment, so I had that going for me. Next went the rest of that leg, then my arm, and finally my entire body stood out in the open. The mud made tiny little squeaking noises with every step I took, and it sent acidic adrenaline racing up my veins. 

My boot stepped on a particularly damp patch of mud and grass, and the ghost whirled around to look in my direction. Every muscle in my body froze, including my lungs. Out of the corner of my eye I watched him frown and hum a suspicious note to himself before he shook his head. With that, he turned back around and drifted off. I didn't relax or breathe again until he was safely out of sight around a corner; only then did I suck in a desperate gulp of air and put my hands on my knees-- my visible knees. 

'Wow, that was intense. Okay, gotta keep moving. I must be getting close, 'cause those leaves over there look kinda more yellow than green.' 

No more than five minutes later, I made one last right turn and found myself stepping into a bath of sunlight. I'd made it to the garden! Opulent fountains spraying water high into the air were surrounded by beds of flowers of every kind and color. The moist ground gave way to gravel and stepping stone paths, and happy ghost bumblebees and butterflies zipped from plant to plant in a never-ending bid for nectar and pollen. "Whoa..." I whispered under my breath, drinking in every sight spread out before me. 

Taking the stepping stones one at a time in a childish game of hopscotch, I skipped in circles around the flowerbeds in search of the perfect flower to pick for myself. But how could I choose from so many choices? "Why do I have to just pick _one?_ " I whined while stroking the silky petals of a dusky yellow tulip. "They're all so perfect!" 

"Oh!" I gasped when my eyes finally settled on a bed near the edge of the garden. "You're even _more_ perfect!" Their stems were long, with tiny bristling thorns and wide pink petals that fanned out to face the warm sun. "You look like a cross between a rose and a sunflower, friend," I giggled, reaching out to pet the nearest soft flower. "I love you~ I hope Dora would be alright if I picked you."

Oh, no. There it was: that anxious uncertainty. "But... But she did say to pick one from any of the beds, right? So it should be fine. It is fine. Duh." Still, my hands wouldn't move toward the stem so I could snap it in half and take the flower back as my prize. "Aw, jeez...! C'mon, Cam, level up already!" 

Before I could let my brain second-guess myself again, I had placed my fingers on the thorn-free parts of the stem and broken it near the base. I drew it close to my chest, cradling it so the head still faced the light. "There. Perfect. See? Nothing to be anxious about. Even if it is her personal... garden..."

~

"You did it! And on the first try, no less," Dora cheered, wrapping her student up in a congratulatory hug. "Excellent work, Camry. How did turning invisible go?" 

"It was pretty easy, actually," she admitted in a mellow tone. "I just... Was it really okay for me to pick from your garden? I feel guilty about it." 

"Don't be, dear!" Dora assured her. "I said you could pick whatever flower you wanted. And I must say, you chose a gorgeous one." She peered at the pink bloom cradled between Camry's palms and beamed. "Here in the Ghost Zone, that one is a symbol of tentative love, but also strength in companionship."

"It is?" She took another look at her flower, and a gentle smile pulled at her lips. "Huh..." 

"Well, we've got invisibility taken care of. How about we move on to another power?" Dora suggested, a playfully excited gleam in her eye. "This one is going to require you using the bathroom before we begin."

"The bathroom? Why?"

~

"Woohoo!" Camry shrieked giddily as the wind whipped her hair around her face, almost obscuring her vision entirely. Gripping with both knees, she chanced letting go of the spine running down Dora's dragon form's back and tail so she could pump both fists in the air. " _Yeah!_ " 

Dragon-Dora found herself smiling as she heard Camry celebrating the sensation of flying. 'That's a good sign. Maybe she'll take to flying as easily as invisibility.' 

When their little jaunt ended, it was at the top of an in-progress skyscraper that Dora landed and allowed Camry to slide off her backside. As soon as her feet touched the metal of the latticed beams, she turned to raise an eyebrow at her mentor. "Why are we so high up, Dora?" 

"It's time we tried to teach you to fly, Camry," Dora replied, using her most upbeat voice. "You'll love it; it's so much faster than walking anywhere, and you can go so _many_ places when you can just fly there yourself." 

"But then are we-- Oh." Her sphalerite eyes were amazingly wide as she risked a glance down at the ground hundreds of yards below. "Oh. Oh, no, no, no. You are _not_ tossing me off the top of this skyscraper!" 

"Adrenaline is a great activator for hidden abilities," Dora answered wisely before she used her light blue tail to nudge her student toward the precipice. "Think of yourself as a baby bird leaving the nest for the first time. I won't let you get hurt, I promise!" 

With that, the nudge turned into a push that sent Camry careening over the edge and down toward the ground. A scream ripped free from her lungs, but she couldn't shut her watering eyes to block out the sight of her impending doom. One part of her brain, the logical portion, yelled at her to try and fly-- as if she even knew _how_ to-- while another part couldn't stop shrieking about how her end was nigh. Mostly, though, her mind was overcome with pure, unbridled terror. 

Wind whistled shrilly past her ears as she plummeted, which made it nearly impossible to hear the sound of huge wings beating a hasty rhythm after her. Each story of the skeleton building zipped by in blurs as if they counted down the milliseconds before her demise. Suddenly the ground growing bigger was replaced by a pair of red eyes and countless blue scales. The breath left Camry's lungs in a mighty _oof!_ upon impact with Dora's elongated face. She snorted and kept flying, gradually slowing until she could land and let Camry safely roll onto solid earth. The much younger girl simply lay there face-down, her extremities twitching every few seconds, as she fought to regain her breath. 

No longer in dragon form, Dora put a hand on her student's shoulder and rolled her onto her back. "Camry, why didn't you fly?"

"B-B-Because I-I... w-was... gonna d- _die!_ " she retorted. Tears streamed down her face-- probably not just a result of wind resistance. "Wh-Why would y-you-- _sniff-- do_ that?" 

"Why? It's how I learned to fly," Dora explained. 

"Dora. You're a dragon." 

"Well... Okay, in hindsight, _maybe_ that wasn't the _best_ idea for you."

It appeared that her breath had been caught back, but hiccups had taken the wheezing's place. "Y-Y'-- _hic!--think?_ "

"But I kept my word, didn't I? I didn't let you get hurt." The smile on her face was a weak attempt at calming Camry down, and it seemed to work at least a little bit, even if only one corner of Camry's lips threatened to turn up in response.

"I-I can-- _hic!_ \-- see w-why you wanted m-me to-- _hic!_ \-- pee before w-we l-l-left."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YAY~!!!! Another chapter, more progress in the story!! And just think: next chapter is gonna be the build-up for a great piece of character and further plot development! That's why you gotta stay tuned and read the next one when it comes out, okay? Okay?! Okay.  
> Please leave me a comment and/or kudos so I know you're interested in reading more, alright? It means a lot to me when you do that! Thanks~


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope I'm not making Dora too OOC for this... But here we go! I've been planning this story arc for at least a couple months, and I'm so excited to write it!

"Try envisioning your body sliding right through the--" _BAM_. "Orrr... Maybe not." 

Camry jerkily peeled herself from the brick wall and clapped a hand over her throbbing nose. Tiny tears dotted the corners of her red-orange eyes. "Dora, isn't there something else we can do to help me turn intangible? Running into brick walls isn't really working for me." 

"This is the most effective way to help you learn," Dora replied, her hands on her hips. "Think of how good you'll be at this when you finally figure out how to go through _anything_." 

"But I can barely feel my face at this point," she whined, gently rubbing her sore cheeks. "Am I getting a black eye?" 

"No, no. You're alright," Dora assured her. "Come on, let's try again. Lead with your hand this time." 

An hour later, they decided it would probably be best to put the intangibility practice on hold for a bit and go back to summoning ecto-energy. Back on the dirt field, Camry and her teacher faced each other with straight postures and determined gleams in their eyes. "Alright, Camry. Turn invisible."

The shorter girl vanished entirely before her mentor's eyes. "Excellent. Commit the feeling of being invisible to memory. Done?"

"Mmhm," Cam hummed, still unseen. 

"Now don't let yourself slip into that feeling again while you're trying to summon your energy. If you're going to be successful in completing this exercise, you'll need to stay focused on the task at hand." Dora's riding boots made dusty sounds on the packed dirt as she moved out of the way between Camry and the curved ring of fireproof targets. "Now hit that bull's-eye." 

Fifteen minutes later~

"Errrgh...! I _swear_ , I've almost got it!" Camry announced in a strained voice as she felt sweat breaking out on the nape of her exposed neck. She was bent over her hands, which trembled with the effort of summoning her ghostly energy blasts. So far, not even a flicker of light had shown itself.

Dora couldn't help the sigh that escaped her lips, and Camry paused to glance over her shoulder at her. "What am I doing wrong?" 

She spoke while shaking her head, eyes closed. "It's just... strange. Usually this ability is the first to manifest itself." 

Their gazes met, but Camry's quickly dropped to the dirt at her feet. "Does this mean I suck as a ghost?" 

"No, no!" Dora let a gloved hand settle on the younger girl's shoulder. "Nothing like that, I _assure_ you. Maybe we're just going about this incorrectly."

"So, what should we do?" 

A contemplative hum rumbled in the back of her throat as she thought about it, one delicate hand on her chin. "We could go back to a different exercise for a while, I suppose. But first, let's take a break." 

"Yay, break time!" Camry cheered, throwing a fist in the air. Suddenly her whole hand tingled with what felt like static electricity, and a lime-green ray shot straight up into the sky with an audible _zap!_ Neither student nor teacher moved a muscle for several seconds, and they stared at each other with impossibly wide eyes. From high in the sky, the ghost of a blue-jay dropped to the ground between them and twitched spastically. 

"Little birdie!" Camry cried out, clapping her hands over her mouth in appall. "Are you okay?" 

In answer, the bird fluttered and flailed around for a second before climbing back onto its clawed feet. 

"You did it!" Dora exclaimed, delight carrying her voice. ""I knew you could!" 

" _Skreeee!_ " the bird cawed as it launched into the air and started to peck with vengeance at Camry's hair and both arms that she threw up to protect herself. 

" _Aahhh!_ I'm _sorryyy!_ " she yelled while trying to bat it away. "Dora, _heeelp!_ " 

~~

Seated on a velvet pillow and sipping a green lemonade-- Camry had decided early on not to question it-- the spirette looked up when she heard a dejected little sigh come out of her teacher, who had also taken a seat on a pillow for their break time. "Are you okay, Dora?" 

The royal ghost started upon hearing her name and looked over at her curious pupil. "Oh, yes, fine. I'm absolutely wonderful." 

"Are you sure? You didn't sound very happy there," Camry pointed out. "Something on your mind?"

"Oh... I don't know..." She drew her knees up closer to her chest and rested her chin on them, looking as dejected as a sad puppy. "I suppose it's just that I have been missing balls lately."

A sharp intake of breath left Camry sputtering and choking on her lemonade. " _Ack_ \-- Y-You mean a dance, right?" 

"Yes." Dora sighed again. "No one in the Ghost Zone really hosts any parties, save for the annual Christmas Eve truce."

"Well... Why don't you throw one yourself?" Camry suggested brightly. "You've got an entire castle to work with." 

She frowned ever so slightly at the idea, but then seemed to perk up when her eyebrows lifted and her lips parted. "That's... not a bad idea. Oh, but we have your training to think about, and I still have to run the realm in the meantime. When would I find the time to oversee the preparations?"

"We could take a little break from my training," the blue-haired girl reasoned. "I've got invisibility down, and I can kind of shoot ghost rays now. And you could always delegate some things to your staff, right?" 

"That sounds lovely, but with the times changing so quickly in this realm, it'll be the twenties very shortly," Dora countered. "We have to prepare for that leap."

One eyebrow lifted curiously as Camry placed her hands on Dora's shoulders and looked her right in the eye, her own orbs the size of dinner plates. "Dora. _A 1920s party_. The roaring twenties wouldn't even _be_ the twenties without a party. _My aesthetic_." She whispered that last part reverently, as well as, " _Do it for the aesthetic_." 

Dora hemmed and hawed uncertainly for a couple of seconds, then held her student's enchanted gaze and began to smile. "Alright. Yes, we can have a ball. Let's do it!" 

" _Yes!_ " Camry cheered, a split second away from pumping her fist in the air until she remembered the incident with the ghost bird. She definitely didn't have the scratches on her forearms for just _any_ reason. "This is going to be so cool! Can I take pictures? Can I take _looots_ of pictures? I can't wait to see it all!" 

"Something tells me you don't think you'll be helping me set this all up," Dora said, a faint smirk playing on her lips. "It was your idea, after all. Let's get started."

"Uh?" she responded dumbly. "How'm _I_ gonna help?" 

~

"This is going to be so thrilling!" Dora chirped, clapping her hands together as she walked side by side with her student. "We'll reorganize the biggest ballroom in the castle and find a band to play live music for dancing. Then we'll send out invitations to everyone in the Ghost Zone and make our dresses-- not exactly in that order, of course-- and prepare lots of food for the event! I'm going to need your help if we're going to make this work, though."

"You still haven't told me what exactly I'll be doing, though," Camry reminded her with an amused smile. The speed at which Dora was talking was comically fast, but Cam could relate all too easily. "I mean, I do have a _little_ background with cooking, but..."

"Oh, that will be the chef's job," Dora said with a little wave of her hand. "You're going to be my personal assistant in all of this! I'll show you how I govern the realm, and we'll figure out the guest list together. Madison will take care of making our dresses, but she'll need to get a few more measurements from you." 

When they had first realized how few pre-made clothes even remotely fit Camry because of her diminutive height-- 5'1.5"-- Dora and Madison had made her sit through a fitting for new clothes as well as some casual outfits. Camry had had little say in the matter as the two ghosts wanted to make sure she fit in with a period-accurate wardrobe, but they had made allowances with more pants and shirts than dresses and skirts. 

Camry groaned internally at the idea of her personal space being invaded in order to obtain more measurements. "Okay... This sounds like it'll be fun, though. Can I be the party's photographer? Please please please please _please?_ "

"Of course!" Dora positively beamed at the idea. "Will you be using your, ehm, _ePhone_ or your... Polar droid?" 

The amount of effort it took to keep her giggles in was nothing to laugh at-- or maybe it was. Camry viciously bit her lower lip and let the air out of her nose slowly before answering. "Probably my Polaroid, but I'll keep my iPhone with me just in case I run out of film or want a different look. Since the Polaroid would give the pictures an appearance that's a little more accurate to the twenties, I'd rather use that." 

"Ah, I see." Dora smiled in relief, internally grateful for the politely indirect correction of her mistake. Camry really couldn't blame her, either; neither of those specific devices had been invented yet in her realm. "I would _love_ it if you were the photographer!" 

~~

First and foremost, Dora and Camry retreated to the former's private study to work on the guest list. Since RSVPs would be necessary to attend, they knew to get that process started as soon as possible to get the maximum number of guests' responses. After some discussion, the final draft of the invites went a little something like this: 

**You have been formally invited to attend a 1920s-themed dance at Dora's castle this Saturday evening at 9 o' clock! Please come dressed for the time period and ready to spend a wonderful night dancing to live music, snacking, and socializing with your fellow ghosts. RSVP~  
PLEASE READ: the criterion pertaining to the annual Christmas truce applies to this event and must be abided by in order for you to attend.**

"I like it," Camry praised as she watched Dora sign the bottom of the draft so she could make it official. Her eyebrows shot straight up when Dora held it out to her expectantly. "Uh--?" She could see the black ink still drying on the paper.

"Here, you should sign it as well," Dora explained with a bright grin, "since it's our event."

"O-Oh, are you sure?" she stuttered, hesitantly accepting the card by its edges so as not to smudge any of the perfect calligraphy. 

"Of course!" Dora offered her the chisel-tip pen's handle and watched eagerly to see what her student would do. Camry's lips pursed in thought as she took in another look at the invitation. Everything was so neatly centered and elegant-- there was no way her horrible penmanship would do Dora's handiwork any justice. 

"Oh!" she gasped when a brilliant idea struck her suddenly. Try as she did to watch, Dora couldn't see over Camry's protectively hunched shoulders as she bent over the card and made slow, careful marks with the pointed edge of the pen. "There. How's that?" 

Below Dora's curlicued signature and a bit to the right of center, Camry had etched in a cute little smiley face with an upside-down triangle under its right eye. A pair of eyelashes gave the emoticon a more feminine look. 

"Well, it's not your name, but I like it," Dora answered, taking back the card. "Is that supposed to be your scar?"

"Yeah," Camry said a bit bashfully, the fingers of one hand wandering up to touch the rougher patch of skin on her cheekbone. "I mean, that's just how I've been drawing my smiley faces for a while, so it's special to me." 

"Ah~ Excellent. We'll have copies of this printed and sent out to everyone in the Ghost Zone. I am so _excited_ for this!" 

When Camry's back was turned a moment later, Dora picked up the guest list-- a list she had composed mostly by herself-- and discretely added two names at the bottom along with special instructions for the ghosts that would be delivering the invitations. 

~~

After sending out the invitations, which was no easy task in and of itself, preparations for everything else went underway promptly and lasted throughout almost the entire week leading up to the big event. Consulting with the castle's kitchen staff helped formulate a menu of various finger foods, desserts, and drinks, which would all be made the morning of the party. Plans for the decorations took longer and were the source of much debate as Camry offered her input whenever she felt brave enough to speak up. Dora's presence certainly helped her overcome that fear of speaking out of place. 

"Which colors should we prioritize in the layout, Your Highness?" the interior designer inquired of the princess, who kept a pensive green hand on her chin as she bent over the color palette options. "Thanks to your apprentice's help, we've managed to narrow the choices down to these three, but they are not the only ones we have."

A perfectly manicured finger gently tapped the palette on the right, which featured shades of gold, red, black, and white. "This one is perfect. Start the preparations for the venue as soon as possible, if you please."

"Certainly, Your Highness," he said, bowing out of the room and carrying the pages against his suit jacket. Dora swiveled to face Camry, and they immediately a gleeful two-handed high-five. 

"This is going so well! You have been a _wonderful_ help so far, Camry," her teacher said appraisingly. "Are you ready to get started on the dresses?" 

"Ehh..." she replied hesitantly. "What are they going to look like? This is a _twenties_ dance, after all." 

"Not to worry~" Dora chirped. "Madison knows what the fashions are meant to look like, and she'll take care of all of that herself. She's a very handy seamstress."

"I don't doubt it," Camry agreed with a smile. "Okay, let's go see her." 

Madison's sewing shop was on the floor just below where the guest bedrooms resided, so Cam had yet to see where her clothes had been made and couldn't help skipping ahead a bit to get there faster. The heavy wooden door groaned in protest as she pushed it open with her shoulder and immediately beamed at the handmaiden seated at a long table entirely covered in cloth, thread, needles, and everything else possibly sewing-related. One of Madison's brown braids slipped off her shoulder when she looked up at the new arrivals. She stood quickly and curtsied, as per the handmaiden custom, and offered a stool to each of the women. 

"So, what have you accomplished thus far in making our dresses for the ball?" Dora inquired curiously, taking in the sight of the patterns and long stretches of measuring tape curled up on top of piles of fabric. The work space was so artfully cluttered that it was nearly impossible to get a glimpse of the wooden surface. 

"I've selected a few of the appropriate fabrics, Madame, but I wanted your input on the color," Madison answered respectfully. "Shall we go with your usual shade of blue?" 

"Mmm..." she hummed, her eyebrows knitting together in deep thought. "I would normally say yes to that, but I feel like this is too special an occasion for my ordinary wardrobe. Camry, what are your thoughts?" 

"Pink always goes well with blonde," Cam piped up from somewhere amidst a cluster of headless, legless mannequins dressed in Madison's current projects. "Especially light pink. Or gold-- that would _definitely_ be a good way of asserting you're the queen of this party." 

"Is gold an option?" Dora asked, and Madison nodded quickly.

"Of course, Madame. I can certainly make you a golden dress. What of you, Camry?" 

The teen's head peeked into view around a mannequin's waist when she heard her name. "For me? Um... I don't really know. What did you have in mind?"

Madison rose from her stool and, a roll in each hand, presented two different fabrics to the spirette. "I had an idea that you could wear the same colors as those clothes you were wearing when you first arrived here."

"Ohh~" Camry said in awe, running her fingers down the length of bright green fabric. "Will that look good on me, y'think?" 

"Absolutely," Madison assured her. "But the final decision is yours."

"I trust you," she answered, her eyes closing for a moment in an excited smile. "This will look so amazing!" 

"I'll do my best," Madison promised, a delighted twinkle in her crimson eyes. "But first, I need a few more measurements from you, Camry." 

~~~

"Danny? Any idea what this is all about?" Sam asked her best friend-- one of them, anyway-- the Tuesday before the upcoming event. "I just got this in the mail."

"You got one, too?" he replied, holding up his own copy of the sealed envelope. "I haven't opened mine yet. There's no return address"

"It's an invitation for some kind of themed dance, I guess," she explained, unfolding the card to show him. "And it's signed by _Dora_." 

"Medieval ghost dragon Dora?" 

Both teens looked up at the sound of Tucker's voice as he joined them at the outdoor lunch table, his plastic tray of food loudly clacking against the wooden beams. 

"Yeah, I guess so," Danny said, carefully tearing the envelope open so he could look for himself. "A 1920s theme? That's bizarre." 

"Actually, that aesthetic is pretty cool, if I do say so myself," Sam chipped in. "It's not goth, but y'know." 

"I didn't get one of those," Tucker complained. "Are you two gonna go?" 

"Dunno. You don't think it's a trap, do you?" Danny's ice-blue eyes flicked over to meet Sam's amethyst gaze. 

"Dora's not really our enemy, so I can't imagine why she would want to lure us into a trap-- or why she would only single you and me out and not Tucker," she reasoned, glancing down at the card in her hand. "But you're right, it's weird that this just happened out of the blue." 

"It looks like it's this Saturday, so we at least have time to think about it," Danny compromised tactfully, holding the invite between both thumbs and forefingers. "But if you want to go, then we can." 

"I'll... I'll think about it," Sam said, willing a wanton blush away from her face. "I mean, it could be fun... But I'll think about it."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yaaay~ WOOHOO! It has begun! I'll update this again sometime soon so I won't leave you all dangling in suspense. See you in the next chapter!!


	16. Chapter 16

Camry's POV~

Friday afternoon~

The dance was tomorrow night, and preparations had-- as far as I could tell-- been going all according to plan. The food would be started in the morning, the decorations were nearly done being put up, and just about all of the invitations had been replied to. All the time that freed up for me had prompted Dora to send me out to the practice fields with a palace guard as my temporary instructor. 

My right hand was curled into a fist while my left hand braced my arm as I took aim at the metal target some twenty yards in front of me. The guard, a green-skinned ghost who had said I could simply call him Pavel, looked on with his muscular arms folded across his chest. His accent made me think he was of Russian descent, but I couldn't say for sure. 

"Find that energy source deep inside you, Cam-i-ry," he called out. "It is what keeps you centered in this existence. Try opening your hand instead of keeping it closed."

"I can't do it that way," I grumbled loudly, but complied just to see if it would work. As I expected, nothing happened. "Why is this so _difficult?_ "

"Come, try again," Pavel encouraged in a gentle tone. "You can do this."

"How can you be so sure?" I suddenly snapped, throwing my fists down at my sides just as a rush of heat swept over me, radiating just under my skin. I coughed twice, covered my mouth with one hand, and saw more lava pooling in my palm a second later. "Oh, _come_ on!" 

"You are letting negativity get the best of you," Pavel said as he stepped closer to stand beside me. His gaze landed on the lava in my hand; I shook it off before it could start to cool and form a crusty layer of rock. "Here, let me tell you. You must think _very hard_ about this, Cam-i-ry. Your core is a part of you, yes?"

"Yes..." I answered uncertainly, unconsciously copying his pose by also folding my arms over my chest. 

"And your core needs something to keep it stable. _Focused_." For emphasis, he put a hand on each side of his face, framing his eyes with a mimicry of blinders or binoculars. " What do you care about the most?" 

"What I care about?" I echoed. Both of my eyebrows darted up into my bangs at the question. "Uhm... I care about... my friends, and my family." 

"Good, good. This is a good start," Pavel said. "You care about keeping them safe? About how they think of you?"

My mind immediately wandered back to that blurry day five years ago, the day that gave me the scar on my face, and I grimaced. "Of course I care about keeping them safe." 

"Then you must learn how to use your powers to keep them out of harm's way," Pavel explained, his tone dropping very seriously. "But you should think about what you care about the _most_ most. _That_ is what will really focus your core."

I sucked in a deep breath through my nose and let it out slowly through my mouth, then nodded and spun to face the targets again. Arms raised, I took aim at the bull's-eye directly in front of me and thought about my family. My mom, with her bright smile and incredibly careful hands; my dad with his twinkling smoky quartz eyes and stubbly beard; the three of us going on trips in the summer, and roasting marshmallows over the fire pit in our backyard, and--

_ZAP!_

Electricity charged up my entire arm and collected in my knuckles, then burst forth with enough force to send me staggering a step backwards. The target absorbed the energy and directed it safely into the ground, but I was too busy grinning from ear to ear to notice. " _Yes!_ " 

"This is a good start," Pavel said appraisingly. "Keep this up and you will know how to do this automatically, whenever you want." 

"Wow, that felt... It felt _good!_ " I said, unable to help smiling as I looked at my hands; they still tingled with the aftershocks of power. 

~~

Omniscient POV~

Saturday, early afternoon~

"It's time to get ready for the ball~!" Dora announced as she all but waltzed into the guest bedroom. 

Camry looked up from her place seated cross-legged on the dark green bed, where she had been fiddling a bit with her Polaroid to pass the time. Dora had advised her not to train that day so she would be fresh for the dance. "Madison finished the dresses?"

"She just put the finishing touches on them," Dora answered. Her face was lit up like the midday sun with glee. "Come on, come on! There's no time to lose!" 

They got to work immediately in Dora's suite, washing and shaving before weaving Dora's much longer hair into an intricately braided band around her head. An hour later, Madison arrived with an armload of fabric, which she unfurled to reveal their gowns for the sure-to-be delightful evening. 

"Oh, Madison, this is your best work yet!" Dora exclaimed, her crimson eyes roaming all over the handmade dress. "Though... I am a bit surprised at how short it is."

"That's just the fashion of the twenties," Camry chipped in as she held up her dress and looked up and down the front. An interesting pattern had two thick, light green bands running over her shoulders to meet at a black diamond just above where her belly-button would be. "As was short hair, like mine. I just _love_ this dress, Madison! Thank you so much!"

"Not at all," Madison replied humbly. "I also made matching headbands, and I have some jewelry pieces for you both to choose from."

"We should go check on the preparations before we get entirely dressed up," Dora said wisely, laying the gold dress down on her elegantly-carved dresser. "We only have a few hours before the ball, and everything _must_ be perfect." 

~~

Saturday, 8:55 pm~

A substantial number of the Ghost Zone's residents had already arrived a bit earlier than the time listed on the invitation, but Dora knew that plenty more were on their way. Particularly, the two rather unorthodox individuals she had added to the bottom of the list. The choice to do so had come from a place of caring as Dora had a suspicion that the "friend" who had left Camry after a negative feedback attack had been none other than Amity Park's hero, Danny Phantom. 'It would be good for them to make up, or at least be introduced if I'm mistaken and they really don't know each other' she'd thought. 'And I can't wait to see Sam again! I hope she's been well.'

"Uh, Dora," Camry said from near her mentor's left elbow. They stood at the rail of a balcony that overlooked the entire ballroom; Dora knew she would be welcoming everyone all at once after most, if not all, of the guests arrived. "I-I just had a th-thought." 

The band's music was calm but cheerful, hinting at future fast tempos and lively dancing. Nonetheless, Camry's heart rate had spiked as if she had just performed onstage in front of a thousand people. 

"Is something the matter, Camry?" Dora asked her cautiously, taking note of how the young girl's eyebrows had drawn closer together in worry. 

"I-I'm a spirette right now, and... and other ghosts want to take advantage of that," she said, her voice dropping into a near-whisper. "M-M-Maybe I shouldn't be here a-after all..."

"Oh, dear," Dora murmured while placing a hand on her cheek in astonishment. "Why didn't I realize that myself? Well... It would be such a shame if you missed out on the night you worked so hard to help create."

"B-But the ghosts--" Camry started to protest. Her eyes had locked onto the head of flaming hair that had walked into the ballroom only seconds prior; how could she ever hope to enjoy herself if she was fearing Skulker all night long?

"They wouldn't dare to harm a student of mine." The timbre of Dora's voice had changed, shifting from sweet worry to steely conviction. "I'll see to it that no one lays an unwanted hand on you." 

"But, Dora... it's okay if I don't stay, really. I-I... I don't want to ruin your night," she countered meekly, pressing the tips of her index fingers together idly as she refused to meet her mentor's eyes. 

In the shadows cast over the balcony, they were safe from prying eyes wandering from down below. Dora faced her student and got her to look up by placing a gentle finger under her chin. "It really won't be an issue, Camry. You won't be a burden. I promise. We worked hard to make this dance a reality, so we're going to enjoy it. Besides, haven't you learned how to control a few of your powers already? You've told me before that you aren't defenseless." A knowing smile graced her painted lips.

Camry's sphalerite eyes flickered to look at her lower left for a second, then reconnected gazes with her teacher. "If... If you're sure about this."

"I am. Now, come on. It's about time we officially began the party." The delighted grin on her face was inescapable, not to mention contagious as it had Camry smiling despite her apprehension. 

An enormous clock situated on the wall opposite the balcony, near the ceiling, showed they only had seven seconds before it would truly be nine o' clock. Dora stepped out into the light, making herself visible to anyone who may have looked up from the ground floor. Four, three, two, one. 

The regal hostess cleared her throat, then waved to the crowd and called out a cheerful, "Hello, everyone!" to begin her introduction. All eyes were quickly turned skyward, and a hush fell over the room. "Thank you all for coming to our 1920s ball! I am so glad you all made it. Before we officially begin, I want to remind everyone that the rules of the treaty apply to this event, and we won't tolerate any fighting whatsoever. Also," She paused and glanced back at Camry, who had shyly hid at the edge of the shadows to remain unseen, "we have a spirette among us tonight. While it is true the rules of the treaty do not apply to spirettes, she is my student and under my protection. Please treat her as you would any other ghost.

"Now, let's dance!" 

The band struck up a lively tune, and chatter resumed in the hall. Dora stepped away from the balcony's rail and took Camry's hands between both of hers. "There, now you have nothing to worry about. No one would _dare_ try anything to hurt you when I'm protecting you."

"Thank you, Dora," Cam replied, one corner of her lips pulling up higher than the other in a touched smile. "I think I'm ready to go out there now."

"Good! Then let's go enjoy the night the way it was intended."

~~

Just a few minutes earlier~

"You really can't get away for another hour?"

On the other end of the receiver, Sam let out a heavy sigh. "No, I really can't. My parents were really insistent on me being at this _boring_ function, but I can still get there after a little while if I fly the speeder."

"Right, which I parked behind your house," Danny reminded her. "Keys are on your nightstand."

"I'll see you there around ten, then," she said before hanging up the cell. Danny closed his flip phone and glanced at his reflection in Jazz's full length mirror that hung on the inside of her closet door. "Are you sure I look alright for this dance?"

"Of course you do, Danny. I did research on this!" she assured him from where she sat at her desk, poring over a psychology textbook. "You look fine, little brother."

"Suspenders really aren't my thing, though," he grumbled, hooking his thumbs under them experimentally. A newsboy hat was perched on top of his black hair, and his blue collared shirt wore its sleeves rolled up to just below his elbows. 

"Hey, I gave you the choice of a vest or suspenders, and you chose suspenders," Jazz pointed out. "You're gonna have a great time, Danny. Don't even worry about how you look." She shot a glance at her wristwatch. "Shouldn't you get going? It's ten 'til nine."

"Yeah, I'm on my way. Thanks for helping with my outfit, Jazz." The ring of blue-tinged white light appeared around his middle, changing him into his typical black and white hazmat uniform. 

"No problem. Take pictures if you can! I'd love to see what a real ghost dance looks like." Jasmine waved goodbye cheerfully as her brother disappeared through the floor of her room, then she turned back to her work highlighting different passages she would do further research on later.

Down in the lab, Danny used the thumbprint safety lock to open the portal, which stood before him in its metal and caution-lined majesty. He sucked in a deep breath through his nose, then let it out between his lips. "Alright. Better get a move-on."

As he flew through the ethereal green void filled with doors and floating purple land masses, Danny had to raise an eyebrow at how few ghosts he saw along the way. Hardly any of even the small fry, the ones that could barely wreak havoc even if they wanted to, reared their glowing green heads. 'I guess this party's a bigger deal than I thought.' 

Finally, he arrived at Dora's realm and landed on the steps leading up to the entrance of her castle. There were green-skinned ghosts standing at attention there, and they calmly took in the sight of Danny changing back into his human form. While it had been against his better judgment to dress for the evening as a human, Jazz had argued that he was protected by the treaty and theoretically wouldn't need his powers at all. 

"Welcome to the Ghoul Ball," the guard said cordially before stepping aside and allowing the teen to pass into the great hall. He walked by cautiously, unsure of where to focus his attention as he entered through the double doors that stood at least fifteen feet high. The last time he had gone through those very same doors, it had been to rescue Sam from the clutches of an evil, princely dragon ghost. Who would have ever predicted that he would be invited back, and even on good terms? 

A few months ago, the great hall had been dreary and gray, leaving no room for color or life-- ironically. Now it had burst into the fullness of imagination and opulence, and clusters of ghosts dressed for the setting gave the room an animated sort of energy. Gold and red swathes of cloth cascaded from the ceiling alongside fake, glittery stars; ornamental lights were twisted around columns; an entire buffet hugged one length of the enormous ballroom; and there was more than enough room to accommodate all the guests on this night of dancing and merrymaking.

"Whoa," Danny murmured as he took it all in. Countless pairs of enemy eyes turned on him as he walked further into the room, and all too suddenly he felt a nervous sweat gather heat under his shirt collar. 'Maybe this _was_ a bad idea...' 

That changed quickly when he heard his name called out and turned a little to see Dora approaching him on fast heels. The look on her face was of indescribable delight, and it only grew happier as she drew nearer. "You're finally here! I've been waiting for you and-- Oh, is Sam not coming tonight?"

"Hi, Dora," he replied, absentmindedly scratching the back of his neck. Collared shirts always felt too constricting compared to his usual T-shirts. "Sam'll be here a little later. She got held up by her parents for some sort of charity function back in our world."

"Oh!" she gasped, clapping her hands together once. "Wonderful! I'm so glad to hear she'll be joining us. I was hoping you both would come, though I realize it would be hard for you to RSVP to the invitation... Oh! There's someone I wanted to introduce to you!" she suddenly remembered.

"Really? Who?" Danny inquired. 

Dora didn't answer right away; she had spun around to look for whomever she had just mentioned. "Oh, darn it, I left her with Pandora. I'll be right back as soon as I find her, don't you worry." On that note, she fled back into the crowd and disappeared in the sea of rhythmic swaying. 

"Uh..." Danny said dumbly, not entirely sure what to make of that exchange. Then he shrugged it off and began to wander along the edge of the room, making his way closer to the snacks. Without Sam there, he didn't have that many people he could talk to-- unless he wanted to strike up a friendly conversation with some long-time foes, and where was the sense in that?

A couple of minutes before his arrival~

Camry followed Dora closely, keeping her hands locked around her Polaroid like it was a lifeline. So many bodies pressed in from around her, though they weren't even that crowded in, and it had her heart rate jumping higher and higher with each passing minute. 

Dora introduced her to many different ghosts, and they were all surprisingly cordial in shaking her hand or at least saying "Hello." Slowly, little by little, her shoulders began to loosen up and she smiled more. The rhythm of the music surrounding them all certainly was a help, too. Then, Camry's night was all but made with one simple introduction. 

"Pandora, you've made it!" Dora cheered as she pulled Camry along by the wrist and stopped in front of the giant, ghostly goddess. 

As her sphalerite eyes traveled higher to land on Pandora's beaming face, Camry was starstruck with wonder. "A giant woman..." she breathed too quietly for anyone else to hear over the lively music. 

"Dora, how have you been?" Pandora replied, crouching down a bit so she was closer to being eye-level with the princess. "It's been _far_ too long since we've gotten together for casual reasons." Her red eyes drifted over to rest on Camry, whose cheeks had gone pink. "Is this your apprentice I've heard so much about?"

"Yes, this is Camry," Dora answered while beckoning her forward. Camry immediately shut her mouth and smiled up at the _much_ taller ghost. "Camry, this is one of my best friends, Pandora."

"L-Like in the Greek myths?" Camry asked softly. 

"Exactly," Pandora said, pointing an index finger upward and winking knowingly. The blush on Camry's face deepened noticeably, but Dora somehow remained oblivious to it. "You are well-read, I take it?"

"I-I try to be," Cam stammered bashfully. "It's n-nice to meet you, Pandora." 

"And to you as well." She lifted her head a little to catch the rhythm of the music better, and a grin broke out over her face. "Ooh, this song is fun. Care to dance, Camry?"

Her eyes widened at the proposition, and for a second she stared at the hand Pandora offered down to her before accepting. "S-Sure, I-I'd love to dance!" 

"Take good care of my student for me," Dora giggled before floating away to find someone else to talk to for a bit. 

"Don't worry about a thing," Pandora assured her as she left. She turned back to Camry and frowned contemplatively. "Now, how to make this work... Ah-ha." 

Being incredibly gentle, Pandora picked Camry up by the wrist and set her tiny feet down on two of her hands, which were pressed together and held out flat. The young spirette all but gaped in awe at the arrangement and quickly took off her heels so as not to hurt her dance partner's toes-- er, fingers. Pandora's other pair of hands took Camry by the hand and waist between forefingers and thumbs, and Camry couldn't help a little giggle that escaped her. She could see out over the sea of ghosts enjoying the event, but very few took notice of her or Pandora as they began a little dance of their own. 

"You're not afraid, are you?" Pandora asked, recalling how the much younger girl had stuttered when she talked. 

"N-No!" Camry replied, maybe a little too quickly, as her eyes shot back from the view to look at Pandora's blue-tinged face. "S-Sorry, I... I just get nervous kinda easily, that's all. And I didn't expect to dance with anyone tonight, either."

"It's a party, isn't it?" Pandora chuckled. "So, tell me. Where are you from?"

"Well..." Camry absentmindedly nibbled on her lower lip as she debated whether to tell her the entire truth or not. "I'm actually from the future."

"The future?" Pandora raised a curious eyebrow at that. "How, exactly?"

"I wish I knew," Camry answered, easily complying as one of her arms was lifted and she twirled on her dance partner's palm. "We-- I tried to find a ghost called Clockwork to see if he would know what to do, but I couldn't seem to find him at all."

"That's peculiar," she murmured, pursing her lips in another frown. "I'll have to have a little talk with Clockwork once the dance is over..."

"You would do that for me?" Camry gasped with stars lighting up in her eyes. 

"I'm sure it would be no trouble at all. After all, Dora and I are very close, so if you are dear to Dora then you are dear to me." 

It was around that time that Danny arrived, and without looking up he had no way of knowing that Camry was at the party as well. He meandered around the food for a while, at least until the end of the current song, but didn't feel yet like eating any of the ghostly snacks spread out on the buffet tables. Finally, the current song wound down to a lull so the next could begin, and an even faster tune started up. A cheer rose through the crowd, and more ghosts than before shimmied and swayed to the music. 

"Thank you for being my first dance, Pandora," Camry said as she curtsied on her partner's steady hands. Her shiny black heels dangled from two of her fingers. 

"And to you as well, Camry," Pandora replied with a similar motion. She eased Camry back down to the ground at the edge of the ballroom, and the young teen slipped her heels back on before waving goodbye to her newest acquaintance. Despite how her need to eat (as well as sleep) had diminished over her time spent in the Ghost Zone, Camry couldn't help feeling peckish as she wandered toward the food tables. With eyes only for the spread before her, she shifted to the far side of the table and reached for a cracker with some sort of whipped paste dolloped on top of it. Her hand collided with the knuckles of someone else's from across the table, and she quickly jumped back while looking up at who she had just accidentally touched. 

Bright blue eyes positioned just below a fringe of black hair under a newsboy cap met hers, and their mouths dropped open at the exact same moment. 

"Camry?"

"Danny?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aw yeah, here we go! Stuff's about to go down now! 
> 
> The action! The drama! The romanc-- no. Not the romance. No romance. Not in the way you're thinking. Romance doesn't come until later.
> 
> Muwahahaha~ I hope to see you all in the next chapter!


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> RECAP: 
> 
> Her hand collided with the knuckles of someone else's from across the table, and she quickly jumped back while looking up at who she had just accidentally touched.
> 
> Bright blue eyes positioned just below a fringe of black hair under a newsboy cap met hers, and their mouths dropped open at the exact same moment.
> 
> "Camry?"
> 
> "Danny?"

Their mutual, stunned stare endured a full three seconds of silence before she adopted a stormy look in her eyes and turned to march away. Her heels clicked angrily on the smooth floor, and she held her arms stiff at her sides with her hands balled into fists. 

"H-Hey, wait a sec!" Danny called after her as he zipped over the table without transforming and drew alongside her. "Camry, I've been looking _everywhere_ for you--"

"And _why_ would you do that?" she snapped back, refusing to look at him. "If memory serves, you _ditched_ me in the Ghost Zone!"

"Uh, _what?_ " he answered, both eyebrows shooting up under his shaggy hair as he all but stopped right in front of her. It forced her to stop walking and try to slide around him, but Danny wasn't about to let her just walk away so easily from this. "You _told_ me to go."

"Th-That doesn't make any sense," Camry glowered, unable to help how her growing wrath had made her words catch in her throat. "You were the only person keeping me _safe_ , so why would I tell you to go? Come up with some better logic, Danny."

And she finally got around him by spinning on her toes, putting her back to him as she all but orbited 180 degrees in one fluid motion. He didn't expect it, nor did he really register how she had moved so gracefully, so it took a second for him to turn and continue after her. 

"I'm telling the _truth!_ " he insisted as he closed the distance between them and came up beside her again. "You got all mad at me for no reason all of a sudden, and there was _fire_ and you told me to stop trying to help you. So I left, but then I realized that was a stupid mistake and came back to try and look for you. But then I couldn't find you anywhere! It's the honest truth, I swear." 

On his honor, he raised his right hand for a moment, then let it drop to his side. "Don't you remember _any_ of that?"

Her pace had slowed as he explained, and by the time he asked her that question they had come to a complete stop under one of the amazingly high Gothic windows bedecked with gold and black drapes. Danny used the opportunity to stand in front of her again and fold his arms over his chest as he peered into her enigmatic face. She met his eyes for a brief second, then let her gaze drop to the ground between their feet. 

"I... I don't remember that," Camry finally admitted. By the tone of her voice, most of the fight seemed to have left her. "I don't remember anything about that... exchange."

A quiet sigh escaped him. "I'm glad you're alright, though. When Tucker and Sam set me straight, we hurried back and found you were totally gone. Where did you go?"

"Uh... here," she answered with a small gesture to the ballroom's general vicinity. "Dora found me and took me in."

" _You're_ the apprentice she was talking about?" 

"Y-Yeah, and-- wait, why are you even _at_ this ball?" She stared up at him with bewilderment; her heels did add a little bit of height, but she was still noticeably smaller. "I didn't see your name on the guest list when we were making it."

"Sam and I were invited, so...?" was all he could think of to say to that.

Her eyebrows knit closer together as the realization dawned on her. "Dora must've added you when I wasn't looking. But why?"

"I have no--"

"Oh, _there_ you are!" Dora called out as she broke free from a throng of ghosts and hurried over to the pair of teens. "Camry, I didn't realize you weren't with Pandora anymore."

"I'm fine," Camry assured her in a soft voice, holding her hands together in front of her as she faced her teacher.

"And I see you two have met already," she continued, smiling brightly at Danny. "Good! That's part of why I invited you, you see. Do I need to introduce my student?"

"We kinda already know each other," Danny replied, shooting Camry a look that she mirrored. 

"I had a hunch that was the case," Dora said. "And do I need to explain why Camry wasn't acting like herself back then?"

"It was the negative feedback, wasn't it?" Camry recalled with a sidelong glance at her friend. "That's what you called it before."

Dora nodded, and her embellished dress rustled cheerfully as she shifted her weight a little. For once, she wasn't hovering a few inches off the ground-- maybe that would have taken away some of the special delights of the ball. "Yes, that is exactly right. Here, Danny, walk with me."

Camry hung back as Dora and Danny stepped a few paces away, the former speaking in low tones as Danny nodded every so often. Camry could feel embarrassment heating up her cheeks after she caught him looking back over his shoulder at her for a split second. Finally, Dora finished her explanation and he asked her a quick question, which she shook her head mournfully to in answer; because of the boisterous dance music filling the ballroom up to the ceiling, Cam couldn't make out any part of their conversation. That fact alone had her wringing her hands as they walked back.

'And I couldn't be included in this conversation _because...?_ ' she longed to ask peevishly, but she held her tongue and kept a neutral facade up. 

"Okay, I think I get it all now," Danny said, mostly to Camry than Dora. "I guess I kinda helped make you so upset because I was upset back then, too, huh?"

"Well... I'm kinda sensitive to people's moods, so I guess maybe a little?" she replied. 

"So, no one is really at fault in the matter," Dora chimed in. "Have you two made friends with each other again?"

"Yeah," they answered in unison, and Camry playfully tapped his shoulder with the knuckles of her fist. Danny pretended to wince, and they both let out short laughs that harmonized well with the music.

"Good," Dora said with a relieved sigh. "Now, go dance together. Have fun! It's part of why I invited him," she added as an aside to Camry, who couldn't help but smirk to herself at that. 

The much older ghost left them alone then, dashing away on light, graceful feet and hardly making a sound as she went. Danny had to raise an eyebrow at her retreating backside. "I will never understand how girls can move around in heels. Aren't they uncomfortable?"

"Sometimes they are," Camry said, reaching behind her while kicking back a leg up so she could adjust the twisted strap on her dark brown T-strap shoes. "Depends on how well they fit you, and what you're gonna be doing in them. Like, my dance tutor always made sure my shoes fit me before recitals and dress rehearsals."

"Dance tutor?" Danny echoed while looking down at her curiously. "You dance?"

"Since I was six," she boasted. "You?"

"No, never. I mean, not really," he said, rubbing the back of his neck in a flustered manner. "Just school dances. Do those count?"

"Not really," she giggled behind her hand. "Want me to show you how it's done?"

"Er... Maybe later," Danny compromised. "I'm not sure I'm in much of a dancing mood right now."

One of Camry's eyebrows lifted higher than the other. "How can you _not_ be in a dancing mood? We're at a _1920s party!_ This is, like, _the_ party to be at."

While she was busy convincing Danny that he should let her teach him some dance moves from the future, one particular ghost wasn't having as much fun as everyone else. Another spat with his girlfriend some hours ago had resulted in his going alone, though he had to wonder why he even bothered to attend at all. Leaning against a wall and idly holding a neglected glass of sparkling cider, Skulker scanned the crowd strategically. So many ghosts had shown up that the huge ballroom was on the verge of not being large enough to host everyone.

'Potential prey _everywhere_ , and that stupid treaty prevents me from taking action' he griped, his hold on the glass tightening dangerously. 'What's the point of this event, then?'

Of course, he knew it was better than wandering an empty Zone and brooding over his latest fight with Ember. At least the gathering would give him the opportunity to mull over his next targets. 

A flash of blue hair caught the corner of his eye, and Skulker couldn't help grimacing as he looked at it head-on. Some part of him hoped it wasn't Ember, because there was a very little chance that seeing her right then would end well-- for him and the entire party. However, he could let out a relieved breath when he notice this particular ghost's hair didn't flicker like flames, and her hair was a few shades darker than the pop singer's. Skulker had only just taken his first sip out of his glass when he sucked in a sharp inhale and ended up choking on the carbonated drink. 

'That's her! The spirette!' he realized, activating his hypervision goggles to zoom in on the scene. She wore a green and black dress as well as a headband with two fiery-colored feathers sticking out of it. For some reason, she was laughing at something someone he couldn't yet see had said; as soon as a handful of other ghosts had moved to the side, Skulker caught sight of familiar black hair and the scrawny stature of a young teen boy. 'Of course... The whelp. Why should I have expected any different?'

'Hmm... What an interesting opportunity' he thought, placing a hand on his chin. Skulker continued to watch as the spirette pulled a rectangular object from a hidden pocket in her dress and proceeded to lean in closer to Danny's shoulder. Both smiled at the device, and a second later she stowed it away again. 'Perhaps this isn't the wisest time to jump for it, though.' 

The unspoken warning Dora had said to all the guests during her welcoming speech echoed in his metallic ears. "Treat my apprentice as you would any other ghost." _She's under my protection, and you do not want to get on my bad side._

An altercation with Dora the Dragon Ghost was best avoided, but still... Who could blame a disappearance on him specifically during a night of such wild partying? Things were bound to go wrong when so many ghosts were thrown into the same room, after all. If he could be clever enough to lure her away, then perhaps he would be successful in seizing the spirette and gaining a helper. With that whelp of a boy always being a thorn in his side, Skulker would appreciate an extra pawn to pit against the defender of Amity Park.

"And the strife it would cause him if he were to fight a friend of his..." Skulker murmured under his breath. With a grip that shattered his glass and dripped cider on the smooth floor, his mind was made up. To get a leg up on the competition, he would have to break a few rules. What a good thing it was that spirettes were never even considered as part of the rules! 

Now all Skulker would have to do was get her away from Danny, and then he would work out an escape route from there...

"Okay, at _least_ tell me you're planning on dancing with Sam when she gets here," Camry said after spending a few minutes trying to coax Danny into dancing-- the whole point of going to a dance, really.

"Well yeah, I was gonna do _that_ ," he rebutted. "Aren't you gonna dance with anyone?"

"I already did, with a really nice ghost named Pandora," she replied, casually crossing her arms and leaning against a wall. She let out a tired breath and let her gaze drift over the masses of party-going ghosts. "But all the people here are really draining me..." 

"Wanna go get some punch?" Danny asked. 

"Knowing you, that could mean one of two things," a new voice spoke up from behind Danny, making him spin while Camry had to lean over to look around the taller boy. 

Neither teen expected to see Ember standing there in a black-and-silver flapper dress and with her flaming hair wrangled into something of a short, stylish bob. Her trademark accents of eyeliner descending down her cheeks remained where they ought to be, though. "What're _you_ doing here?" she asked him peevishly. 

"I was invited," Danny answered shortly. "Isn't that usually how it works? You get invited to a party, so you go."

"Gutsy move," Ember had to admit. "With all your enemies here, the tension in the air is _stifling_."

"I'm not looking for a fight, Ember," he stated firmly. 

"That's no fun," she sighed in response, "because I was looking to start a little drama." Her painted lips curled up in a devilish smirk.

Up until that point Camry had wisely remained silent against the wall, choosing instead to watch the scene unfold before her. At the mention of drama, her eyebrows drew closer together and she pushed off the wall to come into Ember's view, standing beside Danny and crossing her arms. "Hey, don't ruin this dance for Dora. She worked really hard to make it as amazing as it is."

Both ghost and half-ghost immediately looked at her, the former with intrigue and the latter with apprehension. Part of why Danny had taken up the stance he had was to shield Camry from view! Now she had just inserted herself into the conversation without even considering the consequences. 'Oh, great...'

"Uh, have we met?" Ember asked knowingly. "Little friend of yours, Danny?"

"Camry," the spirette said, holding out a hand to shake. Ember accepted it for a fraction of a second. "Dora's apprentice." She did her best to not lash out at that "subtle" short joke, but it wasn't easy to let it go.

" _You're_ the spirette?" Ember gasped, her mouth dropping open. "No way."

"Well, _yeah_ , I mean..." Camry said, awkwardly fumbling over her words as she searched for a response. 

"So you're the one making waves around the Ghost Zone," she continued without really giving Camry a pause to think of anything. "The chick my boyfriend's been obsessed with."

"Uh oh," Danny whispered to himself.

Camry had latched onto a different part of that statement, surprising both Danny and Ember as she said, "Wow, okay, look. I only let _one_ person call me a vague version of the word "chick," and he's not you. Can we _please_ not pick fights tonight? For Dora's sake, at least? I know you guys are enemies and hate each other, but still."

Ember let out a sigh. "You're no fun, spirette. C'mon, let's shake things up a bit."

Before either Danny or Camry could stop her, Ember had seized Danny's wrist and was in the process of dragging the unwitting boy out onto the dance floor. They vanished from sight through a wall of other dancers, leaving Camry by herself by the wall and reaching a reluctant hand after her only friend present. "U-Uh..."

"Hey!" Danny complained, twisting his wrist in an attempt to break free. Ember's grip was too strong, which wasn't anything like new knowledge to him, and she assumed a waltzing position with her other hand on his shoulder. 

"Oh, come on, baby pop," she cooed. "What's the harm in a little dance? Isn't that why we're here?"

"What're you up to, Ember?" he asked her in a tight tone that said he wasn't in the mood for playing around. 

"What makes you think I'm up to something?" The look on her face was mocking innocence, and it couldn't have fooled anyone even if she had been actually trying to. "Honestly, I just want to dance."

Meanwhile, on the side of the room opposite to where Camry stood, Skulker managed to catch a glimpse of Ember's blue, flickering hair between the throngs of dancers. If he'd had a heart, it would have hit the bottom of his rib cage with a loud _thunk_. 'She's here? I thought she wasn't going to come! And-- And she's dancing with the brat? Enough of this!' 

"He's made his _last false move_ ," Skulker growled under his breath. Had he been holding a glass right then, it would have shattered just like the first one. 

He pushed through the crowd like an unstoppable force, making other ghosts jump out of his way or be trampled underfoot. From up on the balcony, Dora turned away from her conversation with the much taller Pandora, who was standing on the ground floor so they were closer to being eye-level with one another, to gaze down at the commotion. 

"Oh, dear," Dora murmured, dread pooling in her middle as she saw how this would likely unfold. "Why can't he get along with other people...?"

"I'll put a stop to this," Pandora offered, but then paused when Dora placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. The princess shook her head and gestured to their right, at a blue-haired figure, short in stature, that was struggling to reach Danny and Ember just as Skulker was stalking closer to the duo. 

"I have a good feeling about this," Dora assured her friend, who harrumphed and forced herself to back down. "But let's be ready to jump in, just in case."

"Wha- hey!" Ember yelped as her unwittinng dance partner was yanked up into the air by his collar, where he dangled with his toes a good two or three feet off the ground. "Skulker!"

"Dancing with my girlfriend?" Skulker nearly roared with anger, his eyes blazing from inside his metal suit. "You really are more stupid than I thought, _Whelp_." 

"H-Hey, that's not what it looked like!" Danny tried to protest as he fought with Skulker's grip on his shirt. It was a steel vise, about as keen on releasing him as a college student is on waking up early every morning. 

Right at that moment, a small voice piped up from on the ground, making both Danny and Skulker look down at the owner with respective surprise and annoyance. Lo and behold, Camry stood there with her hands balled into fists at her sides and a timid look on her face.

" _Excuse_ me, gentlemen, but I'm afraid this is not the time and place to have a brawl," she said, her voice gaining volume and confidence the longer she talked. "Show some _decorum!_ You've got a treaty hanging over your heads."

Skulker had unconsciously lowered his arm, the one that held Danny out above the floor, as she talked, and his wrist was just within Camry's reach. When the taller, mechanic ghost didn't respond to her words, Camry let out a sigh and reached out, latching onto a spot on Skulker's wrist and giving it a sharp jerk. His immediate response was to release his hold and drop the boy, whom Camry quickly whisked back onto his feet and away into the crowd. Ember and Skulker were left there, looking a bit stunned at what had just happened, before they caught each other's eye and instantly looked in opposite directions, their noses turned up. 

Somehow, the music hadn't stopped during that entire altercation, and it was just switching to a new, lively waltz tempo. Being active on her feet and surrounded by dancing music was second nature to Camry, so it was little wonder that she automatically fell into step next to Danny and took his hand, then his waist, switching up the gender roles of the dance. This time, he didn't immediately protest, but raised an eyebrow at the arrangement. 

"Isn't this supposed to go the other way around?" he asked. 

"Gender roles are stupid," she grumbled in reply, gently leading him into the next set of steps. "And you don't know how to dance, as you told me earlier. Doesn't it make sense for me to lead?"

"Okay, but how did you _do_ that back there?" Danny had to know. "And why did you let him see you? We both know he's after you."

"Yeah, but he was gonna beat you up, and that would both suck _and_ ruin the party," Camry explained, pursing her lips in annoyance at the thought of what could have happened had she not stepped in. "And I hate jerks like that. And as for the wrist thing, I know how to do a lot more than that-- when I have to." 

"Well, thanks for the save back there, I guess," he said, glancing back at the approximate spot where he'd almost been clobbered by a jealous cyborg. From their place at the edge of the dance floor, neither teen could see Ember or Skulker's flaming hair. "You did a good job of diffusing the situation. Although, heh, I could've easily handled him."

"I'm sure," Cam agreed with a subtle roll of her sphalerite eyes. "Don't freak out; it's just part of the routine. I'm gonna dip you."

"Don't you dare dip me."

"I'm gonna dip you."

"Don't do it--!" he exclaimed, suddenly parallel to the floor with his leg automatically sticking straight out and his glaring gaze aimed straight at the amused grin on Camry's face. Then he was upright again, and she let him go to stand back with her hands in the air. 

"Oh, c'mon, that wasn't _really_ so bad, was it?" she giggled. "We'll make a pro dancer out of you yet, Daniel Fenton." 

A hot blush of embarrassment overtook his cheeks, and Danny all but pouted as he crossed his arms over his chest. "Maybe give me a little more warning next time before you do something like that, okay, Cam?"

"I did! I even told you _twice!_ " she laughed, harder this time. She let out a breath and placed a hand on her cheek, feeling how red she was from the warmth in the room and the excitement of earlier. "Oh man, I bet I look like a cherry right now. I'm gonna go get some air outside. Promise you won't get in any more fights while I'm gone?"

"Yeah, yeah," he responded with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Go on, I'll be fine."

She thankfully didn't have to fight through any dancers to make it to a tall windowed door that opened out into a pretty, blooming garden situated right next to the great hall. The night air was significantly more refreshing than the heat in the ballroom, and she breathed it in eagerly. A cobblestone path stretched in a winding stream around rosebushes and other such cultivated flora, inviting her to take a little stroll and let some of her energy replenish in solitude. 

Camry hiccuped, emitting a wisp of dark grey smoke that she paid little attention to. After all, an entire party full of ghosts was only yards away, so her ghost sense was bound to go off.

"This night isn't really turning out how I expected it would at all," she commented to herself, running an idle finger along a seam of her Polaroid's plastic body.

"Prey are so _predictable_ in their habits."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Make sure you comment and leave kudos to donate to the charity of your local ghost child!
> 
>  
> 
> (Note: this fanfic is in no way affiliated with any local ghost children charities. If you know of one, please donate on our behalf and help out struggling ghosts everywhere)


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> RECAP:
> 
>  
> 
> "This night isn't really turning out how I expected it would at all," she commented to herself, running an idle finger along a seam of her Polaroid's plastic body.
> 
> "Prey are so _predictable_ in their habits."

The deep voice rumbled from a place bathed in the golden glow streaming through the ballroom's windows, lighting him up from behind and casting his face in subsequent shadow. Thanks to the color of the light reflecting on his fiery hair, the flames shifted to a strangely pale shade of blue-green. Camry started at Skulker's statement and spun to face him, her free palm aimed at his chest in a defensive pose while her occupied hand still gripped her camera protectively. 

"What, are you mad about me breaking up your fight?" she asked, internally mortified at how her voice had cracked at the start of her question. 

"No, that was Ember's doing," he sighed angrily. "She was attempting to make me jealous-- that isn't the point! You're cornered now, spirette, and I won't be leaving this party empty-handed."

She felt her stomach turn over at such a bold and threatening statement. "Th-That's what you think." 

He took a handful of steps forward, and she matched them by backing up. Her heels clicked against the cobblestones, all but echoing in the darkness. From inside the ballroom, a bout of high-pitched laughter drifted on the night air. 

"Care to make this interesting and run?" Skulker asked knowingly, as if he predicted exactly that would occur. 

That did it. Something jelly-like in Camry suddenly hardened, steaming with anger and indignation. She stopped backing up, choosing instead to stand firm with her chest puffed out and her fists at her sides. "Y'know what? I'm done running from you. You're a jerk, and I'm not gonna give you the satisfaction of seeing me afraid anymore."

"That's bold of you, especially when you don't have that whelp protecting you out here," he said, folding his strong arms over his metal chest. 

"You wanna try me?" she spat, anger making her eyes flash an even brighter red-orange than they already were. 

"I intend on retrieving you intact," Skulker stated coolly. He turned his attention to a panel on his forearm and tapped out a command, which caused a net launcher to appear over his shoulder. "Though it would be much more fun to capture a moving target, I do appreciate the ease you're giving me with standing so still."

'Come on, do it just like in class' Camry thought as she bent her knees and kept her arms in close to her torso. She paused to suck in a deep breath, then charged, closing the distance between herself and Skulker in the blink of an eye. Her strength gathered in her legs as she prepared to jump-- she had to, since she was so short compared to her attacker--, but when she actually launched into the air she severely underestimated her own strength; rather than catching a mildly surprised Skulker in the ribs, her roundhouse kick landed on his jaw and sent him careening into a rosebush, which crumpled with the sound of breaking branches under his all-metal body.

Camry reunited with the ground stunned at her own power and wondering where in the world that had come from. 'Am I stronger as a ghost? Oh man, no _way!_ ' 

"Thank god I'm wearing shorts under this dress," she laughed, then turned to her left a bit to see Skulker rising from the bushes. The glare on his face was an obvious indicator that she had really riled him up. 

"You don't wanna try me, Skulker," she added, putting both hands on her hips. "And I don't think you want to jeopardize your relationship with Ember, either."

_"So you're the one making waves around the Ghost Zone. The chick my boyfriend's been obsessed with."_ Ember clearly had tried to start that fight between Skulker and Danny as revenge for Skulker wanting so badly to kidnap Camry-- or at least, that's what she hypothesized. 

"Never mind her," he snarled, taking aim at her with a blaster on his wrist. "You'll pay for that!" 

Her response was to crouch low and rush at him, taking hold of his extended arm. Upon contact, she spun 180 degrees and flipped the much taller ghost over her shoulder, slamming him into the ground with all her might. He went down with a startled yell that had Camry smiling with pride. While he struggled to get off his back, she zipped to his side and took hold of the blaster, trying to wrench it off his arm so he couldn't use it anymore. Though she seemed to have discovered a newfound strength in her body, she wasn't able to rip it away and was promptly flung off into a space between two huge rosebushes. 

Camry scrambled to her hands and feet only to be picked up by the back of her dress and dangled over the ground, where her feet kicked freely in midair. "You're a feisty one, I'll admit, but did you really think you could win against me?"

"What, 'cause you think I'm not strong enough?" she snapped back in answer. If only she had leverage-- then she could flip him again and make a run for the party, where there was safety under Dora's sometimes literal wings. But she was too short to reach the ground, and Skulker's grip wasn't budging anytime soon!

He chuckled, clearly confident in his apparent victory. "If you'd stop struggling, this would be a lot easier for the both of us."

"As if!" she shrieked, kicking out with one heeled foot at his side only to miss by a hair's width. Deep in her chest, her anger bubbled hotter and hotter, making tiny wisps of smoke waft from between her grit teeth. 

She didn't see it appear, but Skulker did, and he could only double-take at the sight. All of a sudden her feet touched down on a smooth, sturdy surface, and she immediately repositioned her struggling grip on his wrist and forearm to turn the tide in her favor with a might roar. As he went flying, yelling the entire way, Camry also glanced down and gasped at what looked like a giant film negative, glowing a pearly white, keeping her toes a couple of feet off the ground. Her reverie was cut short when her stomach lurched and that hot, ashy taste filled her mouth again. Camry coughed and dropped to the earth, the weird film negative having vanished the same instant she became distracted. 

"Camry!" Danny's voice carried through the night air like a bell, drawing nearer until he found her kneeling in the dirt and coughing into both hands like a patient with ye olde consumption. "Camry, are you okay? What was that? I saw him-- and then you-- how did you _do_ that?" His insistent inquiries froze on his tongue when he realized she was trembling and hacking so horribly. "Camry? What's the matter?"

She wasn't able to reply, seeing how preoccupied her lungs were with other things. When he tried to lean over and get a better look at her face, she thrust a deflective hand out toward him and shook her head. "D-Don't look!" Camry gasped out between coughs. "It's-- It's gross." 

Her entire torso shivered with the effort of trying to expel the lava from her insides. Hands balled into fists and pressed against her chest, she sucked in a deep, grateful breath and held it to try and quell her coughing. After a handful of tense seconds, she exhaled a huge cloud of thick, black smoke and visibly relaxed, slumping her shoulders and allowing her the backs of hands to drop onto the cobblestones. She felt Danny's hand on her shoulder and didn't try to shrug him off, though she busied herself with wiping off the lava on her hands. 

"Fire cores suck," she rasped, sounding not unlike a chain smoker of forty years with how ruined her voice suddenly was. 

There was a sudden rustling in the bushes. Skulker rose to his feet along with the sound of snapping branches. Maybe it was a trick of the light, but his hair seemed to have flared up bigger and brighter out of fury at being thrown by an unassuming teen half his size. He took an intimidating step forward, but got no farther when twin rays of energy-- Danny's green plasma ray and a fireball from Camry-- struck him in the chest and sent him reeling onto his back once again. He didn't get up again, and little wisps of smoke curled into the air from where he lay.

"I didn't see much of that fight," Danny explained as she accepted the hand he offered down to her. He helped her to her feet and took hold of her arm to support her; by the way she leaned on him and shakily took slow steps back toward the party, she needed the assistance. "Only from when he picked you up by the back of your dress. Are you okay? What was that thing you were standing on? It just appeared out of nowhere!"

Camry took a few seconds to reply, since she had to find her voice again. "Well, I mean... I told you I'm not defenseless, Danny. I've been taking defense classes since I was ten. But as for that thing-- that whatever it was-- I have no idea why it appeared all of a sudden. It looked like a film negative-- y'know, those individual squares from old film reels?"

By the time they reached the bottom of the polished white steps that led back up to the side doors, Camry had regained the ability to walk on her own and took back her arm with a grateful look on her face. "Have you ever seen anything like that before?"

"Not really," Danny answered, shoving his hands into the pockets of his suspenders. "But maybe Skulker'll finally leave you alone after this, right?" He snickered triumphantly at the thought. 

"Here's to hoping," was her answer as she pretended to raise a glass to toast that idea. Her hand rested heavily on the gilded knob of the same door she had gone outside through, but she hesitated to turn it. "But, after all that... I don't think I want to go back in there."

"You have to at least tell Dora what happened," he advised her quickly. "What if she knows about what happened back there?"

"And ruin her night with stuff like that?" she quipped. "I don't want to bother her with it. I'll tell her in the morning... Right now, I just want to sleep."

'Too bad I can't really do that anymore...'

"Camry, look," Danny started, his tone dropping with seriousness. Keeping her hand indecisively on the knob, she pivoted to face him. "You're super weird."

"Wha--?" she started to say defensively, her face hardening at the 'insult.' 

"No, I mean like you're not really normal compared to what I've seen in other ghosts. Believe it or not, that is the first, and hopefully last, time I see someone barfing up _lava_." For emphasis, he jabbed a thumb over his shoulder, at the spot where said occurrence had taken place. "Ghost or not, that's definitely not normal."

"Dora already knows about the lava thing," Camry said, wiping her free palm against the side of her dress. She glanced down at the dirt stains streaking up the front and frowned. By the way she could feel a slight draft across the back of her shoulders, her costume had also been torn from getting picked up by Skulker, too. 'Madison's gonna be so mad...' 

"And the white floaty square thing?"

"That's... Okay, yeah, that's new." 

Danny flicked his hands out in an "I rest my case" sort of gesture that had Camry frowning peevishly. "Alright, alright. I'll go tell her what happened, but then I'm going to bed. I'm all partied out for tonight."

They turned left and skirted along the outside of the building until they found another door that opened in closer to the balcony area of the ballroom. Camry kept her head down as much as she could while searching for the telltale sight of the gold dress, blonde hair, and green complexion that all belonged to her mentor. Neither teen had much luck finding her until Cam caught a glimpse of Pandora's tall physique on the other side of the room, near the main entrance, and realized that Dora was probably still with her Greek friend. "I think she's over that way."

Miraculously, they managed not to run into any more trouble on their way around the perimeter of the room. As they drew nearer, Camry spotted a telltale swish of a short gold skirt and breathed an audible sigh of relief. That relief shifted immediately to dread when she realized Dora's skirt was so animated because she had just run up to a girl with dark hair and embraced her warmly, much to the gothic girl's dismay. 

"Sam, you made it!" Danny said happily, his face lighting up. She and Dora, who had released Sam from the hug, both turned to face Camry and Danny. The blue-haired spirette found herself unconsciously sliding back behind Danny as she felt Sam's hotly questioning eyes take in the state of her dress. That threat she'd issued to Camry some weeks back still echoed in her anxious ears, reminding her that Sam didn't exactly consider her a friend. 

"I couldn't have left faster if I'd tried," Sam responded casually, looking glad to have escaped her parents and their boring function. "But what happened to _you?_ " 

Camry started as she was addressed directly. "U-Uh, I, uh-- well, there was this-- but I'm fine, really--"

"Oh, dear," Dora murmured. She had just noticed how Camry looked like she had just come back from a rumble. "Who attacked you?"

"M-Maybe 'attacked' is a strong word to use," Cam began to stammer when Danny cut in with a tired exhale. 

"It was Skulker," he supplied. "But she sent him packing."

"You did?" Sam asked, her eyebrows disappearing under her bangs at the ludicrous thought of such a meek, awkward girl effectively beating a robotic ghost with enough firepower to rival a military arsenal. 

"You _did?_ " Dora echoed a beat after Sam. 

"Y-Yeah, and, um, Dora? Could I maybe talk to you for a sec?" She gestured over her shoulder to subtly add that she wanted to talk in private, and Dora nodded before following her a few paces away from the group. Pandora's eyes tracked their leaving, perhaps out of more than just mere curiosity. 

Sam sidled up next to her best friend and rested an arm on his shoulder. "So, is this more power discovery stuff?"

"Yep," he replied, watching as Camry talked quickly and gestured at her feet, much to Dora's astonishment. "Honestly, I've never met a ghost with powers like hers." 

Though she hesitated to ask it right away, an important question was itching to jump off the tip of Sam's tongue. "Danny... be honest with me. Do you trust her?"

"Huh?" he said, raising an eyebrow at the query. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, I just find it weird how all this has happened lately. And you know just as well as I do that plenty of ghosts have earned your trust only to betray you in the end," Sam pointed out sternly, gaining momentum the longer she talked. "I just... I hate that you always get hurt, and now, with Camry, y'know, being the way she is, are you sure she's a friend? Not an enemy?"

Now it was his turn to hesitate, but not for long. Danny stole another glance at Camry and saw her summon another one of those glowing white tiles under her heels, shocking Dora as a result. The older ghost's lips formed a small 'O' shape as she held a hand up in front of her mouth. 

"Well... I get where she's coming from, being so afraid of what's going on with herself right now," he began. "And I honestly don't think she's got it in her to betray us, in whatever way that could even happen."

"Didn't you just say she sent one of your sworn enemies packing a few minutes ago?" Sam pointed out. 

"Look, Sam, I get why you're concerned, and I understand. But Camry, as far as I can tell, doesn't have it out for us, and I honestly doubt she ever will. She's just scared and confused in a whole other time, and I want to help her." The raw honesty in his voice had Sam's eyes widening in surprise.

She didn't respond right away, but when she finally did it was in a soft voice that Danny almost couldn't hear over the loud music. "Alright, but... Be careful, Danny."

"I'm always careful," he answered. Sam let out a loud snort of laughter before she could stop herself, and the sound pulled a laugh out of Danny as well. 

"So! You wanna dance?" he asked while turning to face her and extending his hand like a gentleman ought to. 

A smirk on her face, Sam accepted the offered hand and returned the gesture with a shallow curtsy. Her black and purple skirt swayed cheerfully around her thighs in an ironic contrast to her gothic demeanor. "That's what we're here for, isn't it?"

"Okay, so do you, like, have any idea what's going on?" Camry asked as soon as she made the film negative disappear and dropped back down to the floor. "Because I don't. At all."

"I... I've never seen _anything_ like that before," Dora answered softly, still wide-eyed with shock. "Certainly not with a ghost-- _or_ a spirette."

"Does that mean it's a new thing?" Cam inquired, dread yet again thickening in the pit of her stomach at the idea of no one having any answers. 

"Definitely not," a third voice spoke up, causing their eyes to turn skyward and fall on Pandora walking closer. "I have seen this before. It's very uncommon, however."

"What exactly is going on, Pandora?" Dora asked of her friend, who pressed her lips in a thin line and mulled over her answer. 

"Is this a bad thing?" Camry pressed nervously, her hands clasping each other and pushed firmly against her sternum. 

"No, no," Pandora replied with a flippant wave of two of her hands. "Nothing of the sort. I was just looking for a way to phrase what I wish to say. Camry, your core is not merely fire-based. It's _volcanic_."

"Volcanic?" both Cam and Dora echoed, the latter in stunned awe and the former in utter confusion. 

"Which also means it is too dense for you to achieve true flight. That is why you create tiles to walk on-- so you are not confined to the ground alone." 

"So, _that's_ why I barf up lava? I have a volcano core?" Camry wondered, looking down at her feet and where the tile would have been had she summoned one. "Huh... Weird."

"Pandora... I don't think I can teach her as well as I ought to be able to if I'm to be her mentor," Dora admitted, gesturing with a hand to her student. "Would you be willing to help me train her?"

Said student let out a delighted gasp while her face positively lit up at the idea of getting to see the 'giant woman' again. Hands clasped together, she looked up at Pandora pleadingly, all but begging with her sphalerite eyes for the tall ghost to agree.

Pandora's crimson eyes closed as she smiled down at the two ladies. "That sounds delightful. I'd be happy to help in any way I can."

" _Really?_ " Camry exclaimed, but then immediately balked at having gotten so loud in her excitement. The chagrined look on her face got the other two to laugh, and soon she giggled as well, feeling the anxiety flake off her weighted shoulders. 

"I must say, it's been an amazingly long while since I met a ghost with a volcanic core," Pandora remarked, extending a hand down for Camry to sit on so they could talk better. Dora obliged by floating up into the air, maintaining her pristine posture all the while. "It's not often that you find a ghost with enough substance to maintain such a dense element."

"So, how does that work, exactly?" Camry inquired, crossing her legs as she looked Pandora in the eye. "Are _all_ cores connected to elements?"

"Not always, but ghosts with very specific attributes are often the most powerful," the Greek goddess explained. "And as I'm sure you've seen, most ghosts have far less dense cores. It allows them to fly and drift through solid objects with exceedingly more ease."

"That explains why I was having so much trouble going intangible before," she realized, speaking to Dora this time. The blonde ghost smiled and nodded in response. "And also why I breathe out smoke sometimes."

"Indeed," Pandora said. 

"I suppose this means I should apologize for all the times I tried to teach you how to fly," Dora piped up, her hand on the back of her neck awkwardly as she turned a sorry look toward her student. "Had I known you were incapable of flying... I would never have done any of that."

"I-It's okay!" Camry assured her quickly, waving both hands back and forth to banish the thought. "You never put me into any _real_ danger."

"Even so," Dora insisted, a faint smile on her painted lips. "But now that we know more about what kind of ghost you are, we should be able to tailor your training to better suit your needs."

"Yes, I will do what I can to enlighten you both on this... phenomenon," Pandora promised after taking a moment to choose her words carefully. "This will not be the easiest task for you, however, Camry. Are you sure you are up for this?"

"She most definitely is!" Dora chirped, but Pandora shook her head, throwing her long fiery hair side to side. 

"I want to hear her say it."

Camry bit her lower lip and turned her toes toward each other, automatically shrinking in on herself as she was put under scrutiny. "I-I'm never sure about a-anything, really..."

Pandora let out a sigh and moved to set Camry back down on the floor. "Then I'm afraid I cannot help you--"

"No, wait!" Camry said suddenly, on her feet in midair and standing on a glowing white tile. She furrowed her brows and clenched her fists with determination as she made another and another appear, forming stairs that ended with her standing eye-to-eye with the Greek goddess. "I'm not ever entirely sure about anything, but that's only because there are no absolutes in life. I do want you to train me; that _is_ certain."

"But are you sure you can withstand my training?" Pandora inquired, looking pleased at this unexpected turn of events. 

"We won't know until I try," Camry responded, her voice stronger than before. She pointed an index finger at Pandora decisively. "But I _am_ going to try."

"No," she stated, and Camry felt her heart drop into the pit of her stomach until, "No, you are going to _succeed_."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOW, this took me forever to write. What a turn of events! We've got a new mentor on the scene, and she and Danny managed to make up after their little misunderstanding earlier. I hope I get to post again soon, because now the story is really gonna take off! 
> 
> And don't worry, all of you who are tired of training montages. I won't bore you with too many details wherever I can help it because I, too, want to get to the really exciting parts, like her learning how to fight against other ghosts and eventually trying to get back home...
> 
> I AM THE GHOST OF PLOT TWISTS, BEWARE!!


	19. Chapter 19

Camry's POV~

Despite the party charging on at peak enjoyability, I couldn't have been happier to change, bathe, and fall into bed after finishing my conversation with Dora and Pandora. Maybe it was because of all the previous excitement of discovering new powers, but I managed to actually fall asleep seconds after my head hit the nearly obsolete pillows. 'This is a nice change of pace' I thought to myself before dropping off. 

And, as always, a dream was soon to follow. It started out in a familiar setting: the family room of Saoirse's house. Judging by how the bright moonlight filtered through the space between the curtains, it was the dead of night. Some sort of odd scuffling noise was echoing from upstairs; it instantly had my insides churning with worry. Slowly, with my line of sight hovering oddly low to the ground, I made my way up the stairs as if in a trance. 

"Stay behind me!" The shout rang out from the hallway-- Mr. Mahadeo? Why did he sound so afraid?

"Dad!" a young boy cried out in response. It must have been Aidan or Liam. They were too similar to tell apart just by sound alone. Someone-- probably Mr. Mahadeo-- groaned suddenly, followed by the sound of someone falling to their knees. 

But why the sounds of distress? What was going on? What kind of dream _was_ this? 

Finally, I reached the top of the stairs and came into view of the noises' source. Mr. Mahadeo, dressed in pajamas, had been the one to fall to his knees. Behind him were all four of the rest of his family, each in varying stages of readiness for bed and looking equally as terrified of-- of what, exactly? Why couldn't I see what they were so afraid of? Why could I only look forward?

As soon as I wondered that, a green glow became apparent in my periphery vision, slowly growing brighter. A low hissing rose up, ringing in my ears and making my skin crawl. There, attached to Mr. Mahadeo's arm, was a wriggling green rope that he kept trying to grab and pull off without any luck. Liam reached out to help, but his mother grabbed his arm and held him back too quickly.

"Back _off!_ " Saoirse yelled at the top of her lungs as she dashed forward from around her father and swung a floor lamp like a club at the ground right in front of me. The light bulb inside shattered and rained bits of sparkling glass on the carpet, but not even the sharp edges deterred the advancing horde of snakes coming for their blood.

Wait, snakes?

Snakes!

"Saoirse!" Mrs. Mahadeo yelled in warning, but my best friend kept swinging the lamp back and forth to try and drive off the serpents. "Don't!"

'I have to do something' ran through my mind as I realized the Mahadeos were seconds away from being overwhelmed. Despite the obvious fact that I wasn't in my own body-- was I _in_ one of the snakes?-- my muscles responded instinctively, launching me to my right. I plowed into a pair of serpents and felt their scales break under my venomous fangs; the tang of something citrus-y touched my forked tongue. 

"Huh?" Her voice was unmistakable: Saoirse must have noticed how I 'betrayed my own kind' and killed two of her assailants. "Wha--?"

" _C'mon!_ " Aidan shrieked, grabbing his sister's arm and yanking her back. "We need to _go!_ " 

But where could they go with the way to the stairs blocked, save for jumping from a second story window? It was like my body had a second mind all its own, because I tore into those reptiles with everything I had in me. Before I knew it, I was the only one left amidst splatters of lime-green blood-- maybe 'ectoplasm' was a better name for it if those snakes had been what I suspected. 

Just as Mr. Mahadeo stiffly rose to his feet, Saoirse took a brave step forward and lifted the lamp with the intent to crush me with it. I didn't move; how could I have? All of a sudden I was struck with awe at how she stood over me, so tall from this perspective, and wearing an expression I had never seen on her face before. When she brought it down on my head, I only shut my eyes and waited for it to happen.

The very second it would have made contact, I shot up into a sitting position in bed and yelled, " _AAH! Bad dream!_ " at the top of my lungs. My breath came in short, panicked gasps as I clutched the pajama fabric over where my heart would have been pounding. The room spun, and I found myself grabbing my head to keep it on my shoulders. It wasn't until something foreign tickled my ear that I realized there was something in my left hand; I must have snatched the pink flower from the maze garden out of its vase in my sleep. 

"Oh... Oh, my gosh," I wheezed, head swimming as a wave of dizziness fell over me. Stomach churning, I curled up around my knees and waited for it to pass. 'What _was_ that?' 

There were no footsteps to announce her approach, so I had no way of knowing someone was about to throw my door open until it actually happened. "Miss Camry, is something the matter?" I jumped at the unexpected noise and promptly dropped the flower onto the duvet. Madison's ruby eyes were wide with concern for me and flitted to all corners of the room. 

"Y-Yeah," I gasped out, slowly uncurling and falling back against the luxuriously fluffy pillows. With the heel of one hand I rubbed at an eye and released a tired sigh. "Just a nightmare... I think."

"I heard your shouting from down the hall," Madison explained, drawing near to the edge of the bed but remaining standing-- floating, technically. "Are you sure you're alright?" My response was a silent nod accompanied by a telltale grimace. "Well, if you are, then it's about time to get ready for the day. I heard you'll be training with Lady Pandora today. Is that correct?"

"Yep," I answered, sitting up and moving to throw the blankets off my legs. Something made me pause, and I instead clutched the duvet in one fist. "Madison... Is there such a thing as ghosts doing...?"

"Yes...?" she prompted gently after my words trailed off into silence. I busied myself with finding the flower and returning it to the vase on the nightstand.

"Um... N-Never mind, I forgot what I was gonna say," I lied while getting to my feet. The knob of the armoire felt strangely warm under my hand.

"Miss-- Camry, please. If there is something bothering you, I would be more than happy to get the madame for yo--" Madison offered, but for some reason I cut her off before she could finish.

"N-No, no, it's really nothing," I insisted with maybe a little too much force behind my words. I tried to compensate with softening my tone. "Thank you, though, Madison. It was just a dream. I don't need to bother her over something so small."

"If you're certain, Camry," she answered, sounding reluctant to comply with my wishes. "Would you like some assistance getting dressed?"

'You always offer that' I thought, mentally unable to keep myself from smiling a little bit. "No, thanks. Are you worried I'll ruin another one of your clothes?" 

"Not as long as it doesn't become a habit," Madison quipped in reply, and we shared a tiny giggle. Though at first she had been the picture of an aloof and detached servant, it seemed like we had bonded a little over the short period of time I had been living in Dora's castle. And besides, after how I had tried to apologize profusely for destroying one of her precious creations, she had refused to hear any of it and helped me draw the bath I'd taken before falling asleep. Because of all that, I couldn't help but feel indebted to her kindness. 

"... While I have you here, Camry," Madison began in a conspiratorial tone that had my metaphorical hackles raised out of reflex, "there was something I have wanted to discuss with you."

"Like what?" I asked, turning to face her while holding against my chest the shirt and trousers I intended to wear for the day. 

She must have noticed the anxiety in my expression because she quickly assured me it was nothing terribly "dire," to use her own word. "It occurred to me last night, after you gave back the dress, that you won't have anything to wear after you leave this realm. I don't know when that will be, so I thought it would make the most sense if I started to make this tentative outfit sooner rather than later. However, I do not know what it should look like, so I wanted to ask if we ought to collaborate on it." 

"D'you mean, like, a superhero suit?" Danny Phantom's monochromatic get-up flashed through my mind's eye. He was a superhero, in just about every sense of the term, but was that what I was going to become as well? Who ever said I would? 

'You're overthinking this, Cam. It's not _necessarily_ a super suit-- just an outfit! One you'll probably wear a lot, whether or not you're fighting off ghosts.' 

"Perhaps, if that is what you intend to become once you gain control of your powers," Madison answered diplomatically. "We could start thinking of how it should look by looking at your friend's clothing for inspiration."

"That sounds alright to me," I found myself saying honestly. "But if I had to make any adjustments, I wouldn't have any of that hazmat stuff covering my shoulders. Or most of my arms. It looks kind of constricting. Probably feels that way, too. Or maybe not. I don't really know."

"I'll sketch some designs for you to consider once you're finished for the day," she offered, a cheerful smile decorating her face. She then left to allow me some privacy to dress. As soon as I was alone, my mind began to wander down the path of hero costumes and their most functional points-- and especially how cool this or that would look in an action shot.

"Heehee~" I giggled as I pulled on my riding boots. Finally, it was time to find Dora and start the day's training. "I wonder what it's gonna be like training with Pandora."

~

Apparently it was gonna be _brutal_. 

We weren't going to be training in Dora's realm, but Pandora's, which prompted a little trip through the Ghost Zone. Thank goodness Dora was amused by how curious I was, because I would have otherwise talked her ear off with all my questions and hypotheses concerning everything we passed on our way to Pandora's. When we arrived, I couldn't help staring up at the impossibly high ceilings, held up by Corinthian marble columns, and spectacular statues that probably belonged in museums all across the world. And the _fountains!_ The giddiness brewing in me was almost too much to overcome, but I sufficed with taking pictures with my Polaroid.

"You brought that with you?" Dora inquired with a pointed look at the device in front of my face.

"I never leave home without it," was my calm response before my finger pressed down on the button and captured a faint rainbow sparkling off the fountain's gentle cascade.

Omniscient POV~

"Welcome to my temple," Pandora's booming voice called out from the top of a staircase at the far end of the elongated room. She floated toward the two newcomers and placed three of her hands on her hips while the fourth held a staff that glowed with pink energy. 

This was Camry's first time seeing Pandora in an outfit other than the 1920s-style dress she'd worn the night before, so it was definitely something of a shock. Her sphalerite eyes were wide as they took in the sight of her ornate gold helmet, close-fitting chiton, and nearly literal mane of fiery pink hair that flowed behind her. 

"I trust you recovered well from your ordeal last night?" Pandora inquired of Camry, who snapped out of her reverie and quickly nodded.

"O-Oh, yeah, definitely," she answered, cheeks ever-so-slightly flushed. "I had a weird dream after that, too."

'Crap! Why did I blurt that out? I didn't want to bring that up!' she fretted.

Pandora's response was to nod with her eyes sliding closed for a mere second. "Adrenaline can leave the weary mind susceptible to many _interesting_ suggestions. Also, I thought I should mention that I did attempt to contact Clockwork recently, but strangely could not reach him. It's a puzzle I, too, would now like to see solved."

"Is it possible he disappeared or something?" Camry asked. "I mean, I don't know the guy personally, but should we be, I dunno, sending search parties after him?"

A faint chuckle escaped Dora, and she shook her head at the idea. "If there is one thing we in the Ghost Zone know, it is that Clockwork is never where or when he does not want to be. He is far too powerful on his own to be in any sort of danger."

"Now, enough of this idle chatter," Pandora spoke up, her strong voice carrying through the entire room. "We have training to attend to! Follow me, and we will begin. I hope you're prepared to, as some might say, 'give it your all,' Camry."

Her answer, which followed a tiny gulp, was surprisingly confident. "I am, Pandora. Let's do this."

~

Or maybe not. 

" _Another_ maze?" 

Standing atop one of her glowing white tiles so she, Dora, and Pandora were more or less of "equal" height, Camry surveyed the hedges her newest teacher indicated with a sweeping gesture with two of her arms. Unlike the notably peaceful maze she had run through more than a week ago, this particular set-up echoed with occasional grunts and roars of mythical monsters trapped within the walls. Spurts of blue fire flared up dozens of feet high in various corners and turns, illuminating the dark green leaves and throwing odd shadows everywhere. 

'Oh, jeez...'

"Are you sure this isn't a _little_ extreme, Pandora?" Dora piped up, worry nearly making her voice crack. "She's still rather new at learning how to master her powers--"

"I have learned that the best teacher is experience, and the best motivation comes from adrenaline," Pandora explained sternly, folding a pair of arms over her chest. "This is nothing she cannot handle. After all, last night was only the beginning."

"You mean, the beginning of ghosts attacking me?" Camry asked. Her hands, yet again, were pressed together against her sternum; it seemed to be her default pose for whenever she felt any brewing anxiety. And who could blame her after seeing such an imposing challenge set for her? When a tower of that blue fire leapt up some twenty yards away, Cam swore she could feel the heat on her skin. 

"I can sense it won't be too much longer before your core fully develops," Pandora continued. "This means you need to work hard at unlocking as many of your powers as you can. While it is true that you will gradually develop them well after becoming a true ghost, you will need to be prepared to deal with the other ghosts that might seek to do you harm. Skulker was only the first, but I am absolutely certain he was not the last."

Camry nodded slowly, turning her gaze from Pandora's face to the maze. Wait-- was that a pair of _horns_ peeking over the top of a hedge wall? 

"Wh-What exactly is in this maze?" Her voice, faint with fear, broke at the word 'exactly' and caused her cheeks to flush a deep crimson.

A corner of Pandora's lips turned up in a knowing smirk. "I thought you were well-read, Camry."

"So... a minotaur?" she guessed.

"That is one of the creatures in this maze, yes, but not the only one. You will see as you travel along."

Dora cleared her throat indicatively before speaking up. "Well, Pandora, this is certainly shaping up to be a challenging maze, but-- are you certain this is not too dangerous for Camry? She only has mastery of a couple of her powers, and we are still discovering new ones as time goes on." Her eyes fell on the white film negative under her student's feet to make her point, then looked back over at the ghost goddess. "I would not want to see her in over her head."

"This is mere child's play," Pandora insisted, wrinkling her nose in tame offense. "What a warrior needs is to be challenged so that she may grow strong enough to protect those she cares about! I am confident this is where we need to begin if we are to train her well enough for such a destiny."

'When did a 'destiny' ever come into play...?' Camry had to wonder, though she didn't voice her thoughts. "If I just take it slow at first, this probably won't be _too_ bad, right?" 

"Just keep your wits about you, Camry, and you will have little to fear," Pandora responded before using one hand to nudge the blue-haired teen toward the maze. "Do not fly over or pass through the walls. Once you reach the exit, we will move on to the next part of your training."

Rather reluctantly, Cam formed a flight of glowing stairs down to the ground and reconnected with it, feeling a nervous itch form on her upper arms. An arch of white-hot lightning illuminated her starting point; just shy of standing directly beneath it, she turned around to look back at Dora and Pandora. Her first mentor gave her a discreet thumbs-up, something Camry had had to explain to her several days ago, as well as a reassuring smile. It did its job in lifting her spirits-- no pun intended-- and Camry found herself striding forward confidently, knowing that she still had at least one friend backing her up.

"Pandora, how will we know if she needs to be rescued?" Dora asked slowly, as if the thought had only just occurred to her.

"She will find her own way out," Pandora stated firmly, tapping her staff's base on the dark violet ground. "Like a true warrior, she'll need to be resourceful and not rely on others to save her."

"Oh, dear," Dora whispered to herself, a gloved hand flying to cover her mouth as she looked where Camry had disappeared inside the deadly maze. "Oh, no..."

Down on the ground, Camry crept along slowly, her eyes and ears alert for any danger coming her way. Through the hedge walls, which were a strange shade of dark blue she couldn't ever hope to explain, snuffling and snorting sounds reached her and sent her pulse into skipping beats. Was that the minotaur? Something else? Something _worse?_

'I don't think I want to do this anymore!' she panicked, clasping her hands together and bringing them close to her chest. 'Where's the exit? What does it even look like? I should've asked more follow-up questions!'

Bathed in shadow and feeling weak in the knees, Camry peeked around a corner and winced at the sight of a thousand spiders spinning a thick web across the path, effectively blocking it. "Not that way, I guess..."

"Well, aren't _you_ quite the meal~" a silken voice commented from directly behind Camry's right ear. Her figurative heart stopped dead-- pun intended-- in her rib cage at the same time her whole body went entirely rigid with fear. When had someone gotten behind her? And how did they move so silently? "Did Pandora send you here as punishment for a crime?" Her head turned ever so slowly, eyes wide to take in the sight of--

... no one. 

"Huh?" 

Something sharp like a shot poked her in the neck just above the collar of her jacket, and Cam reflexively went to smack it only to freeze when she realized a huge black and brown spider was quickly making its way down her sleeve. Well, except that this particular spider only looked to be _half_ -arachnid; It paused and regarded her with an amused expression on its many-eyed face. "I'll be curious to hear what crime branded you with a fate so cruel as this one."

If so many other freaky, inexplicable things hadn't happened to her already, and in so short a time span, she might have screamed or even cried at the sight of the half-woman, half-spider crawling down her arm. However, she simply froze up and stared as the spider jumped off her and suddenly grew in mid-air, reaching a towering height that allowed it to lean over Camry easily-- not that it was hard when she couldn't quite say she was five-foot-two. 

Bearing the head and shoulders of a dark-haired, olive-skinned woman, the spider's body transitioned quickly into the sleek, long-legged and bulbous body of a black widow, minus the red hourglass. All eight eyes crowded together on the upper half of her face, but two were larger and positioned where they would have been on a regular person. Though she obviously trembled with fear, Cam decided it would be best to focus on those two specifically. 

"I-I'm n-n-not looking for any troub-ble," Camry stammered, feeling thick-tongued and clumsy. Why was her head spinning all of a sudden?" 

"And yet, it has found you nonetheless," the spider-woman said with a sweeping gesture of her two foremost legs, "in the form of Arachne and her many children."

"Arachne?" she echoed, raising an eyebrow only for the other to join it in realization. "Oh, oh! I know your story!" 

" _Do_ you now?" Arachne leaned in close, putting her face inches from Camry's and grinning, revealing wicked-looking fangs that dripped with venom. "And which _version_ of that would you be referring to?" 

"Th-The--" Camry started to say, but couldn't stop stuttering long enough to get the words out in the right order. "A-Athena-- you-- contest-- w-weaving-- u-uh--"

Arachne leaned back and let loose a loud, twinkling laughter. "Oh, my dear, you are _quite_ amusing. I'll be sad to lose such entertainment, but my children do need to eat. We get so little from the Ghost Zone, so we must take whatever we can get in this forsaken puzzle." 

Cam felt her stomach plummet at Arachne's words, but still kept her composure intact. "W-Wait, I-I--!" After swallowing down the lump blocking her throat, her words began to come out with far more clarity. "I-I remember reading your story in my Greek mythology class-- th-the one at the beginning of the year-- and I got so mad because I thought you didn't deserve what Athena did to you."

"Ah, you know the version where she cursed me for beating her weaving," Arachne said, moving away a few feet and crossing her two front legs behind her back as if they were arms and she was brooding. "That was so long ago... And while it is true we had a contest, we held little animosity between each other by the end. I have come to see my current form as a gift that allows me to keep weaving to my heart's content."

"Wait... it was a gift to you?" Camry's voice, small as it was, carried a note of confusion and dawning understanding.

"In some ways, yes. In others, perhaps not so much." Arachne spun back around and smiled wickedly at the teen. "But I do thank you for listening to me so calmly while my venom slowly dulls your body."

'So _that's_ what that prick was.' 

"B-But... I really admired what you wove in your tapestry, Arachne," Camry said, all but entirely relaxed at this point. The grass looked so soft, just perfect for a little nap, and inside her riding boots her toes went numb at the same time her fingers did. "The way you called out Zeus for all the awful things he did to women-- I rooted for you the whole time."

That made Arachne pause with a look of actual uncertainty on her face. "You... what?"

"Yeah, I wanted you to win... so the gods would maybe... be nicer, or... something..."

That numbness had crept further and further into her body, spreading from the outside-in and pulling down her eyelids. As a swell of darkness encased her mind, Camry could have sworn she heard the skittering of thousands of legs creeping closer and closer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you will leave a comment and kudos on this story! It would mean a lot to me~ I'll see you in the next chapter, whenever that comes out. WUVS!


	20. Chapter 20

Camry's POV~

Just how much my head spun was impossible to describe when I finally came back to reality-- or what was my new reality. With every dry breath I took in, the world seemed to shift its axis underneath me; I wanted to grab onto something, but my fingers wouldn't move no matter how much I willed them to. Some part of my brain, probably the most rational part, realized that I should be panicking, even if it meant that only my heart rate would have sped up, but my pulse was slow and dull in my ears regardless. Was I dead for real this time? 

Consciousness didn't seem very appealing anymore, but there was little I could do about that except keep my heavy eyelids closed and try not to think too much. If I was really dead now, then what happened next? Can a ghost really "die?" What killed me? Was I going to just disappear like what that article on Tucker's PDA said?

'I thought I was trying _not_ to think.' The gripe drifted through all these questions and made them settle down so I could just relax a little. Maybe, if the ground would _just stop tilting_ , this wouldn't be so bad...

"... _spout again. I believe in love, and who knows where or when, but it's comin' around again. The itsy bitsy spider climbed up the water spout. Down came the rain and washed the spider out. Out came the sun and dried up all the rain. And the itsy bitsy spider climbed up the spout_ —oh, are you awake over there?"

That silky voice was vaguely familiar, for some reason. And she had just been singing, right? "The Itsy Bitsy Spider?" Why did that make me want to giggle...?

"I know you're not really dead over there~" the voice cooed playfully, and something akin to many dainty footsteps drew closer. "I would know because I gave you the antidote to my venom just in time. You should wake up now so I can ask you a few things."

A thin hand—though it didn't quite feel exactly like a hand, if that made any sense at all—touched my shoulder and pushed, trying to rouse me out of sleep. It took a lot more effort than it should have, but I finally managed to crack my eyes open and blink to clear out some of the grogginess. Wait, where was I, again? I could see grass, and the wall of a dark blue hedge, and also, hovering over me, the face of a woman with her dark hair thrown up into an adorably messy bun. Who was she...?

"There you are," she said with a faint smile on her red lips. Was it just my being so dazed, or did she really have that many eyes? And her black dress looked so strange, almost like—

"Weh--?" I croaked out in a raspy voice. I wanted to be scared and run away, but my brain was dead weight in my skull and I could barely twitch my fingers, let alone stand on my own. She was a _spider lady!_

It all rushed back to me in a blur of spoken words and drowsy fantasy. Arachne, first tiny and then enormous, towering over me like I was a fly caught in her web. I couldn't move—she'd immobilized me? She said some things, I tried to tell her some things, and then I... I, what? Passed out? Died again?

But if I was dead, why was she here, too?

"Oh, no, darlings," Arachne said suddenly as four of her eyes focused on a place further down my body. "There's no need for that. I don't think we will be eating this one. I know, I know—don't give me that. We do not want to hurt this girl."

Then her attention was back on me, and she reached a spider leg out to poke my cheek. I barely felt it. "I understand that it will take some time for you to regain feeling in your body, so do not try to move just yet. You could hurt yourself if you move too much. You have my word; we will not do you any harm."

Why was she being so nice to me? Last I checked, she'd been eager to _feast_ on me!

_Tasty moussse..._

_Yessss, it hassss been a while ssssince I lasssst feassssted_...

I sucked in a sharp breath at the hissing words turning 'round and 'round in my skull and shut my eyes tight, willing the voice to go away. For some reason I just couldn't put my finger on, that rasping, thin voice felt more sinister than anything I had ever faced before. It had my stomach doing somersaults while my palms and forehead broke out in a cold sweat.

It could have been hours later, or maybe a handful of minutes, but slowly I worked my way up to the point where I could prop myself up on an elbow for a few seconds before flopping back onto the pillow under my head. 'Where did _this_ come fro—Oh. It's made of spider silk' I realized. Well, it was certainly soft and comfortable, and it thankfully didn't stick to my hair thanks to its tight weave, so I didn't have much of a problem with using it.

"If you're aware enough to talk now, I have some questions I would like answered," Arachne spoke up from her seat a few feet away from me. With her bulbous abdomen resting on the ground and her eight legs either curled up underneath her or bent and pressed close to her body, she looked at me intently. "What did you mean by what you said earlier? That you 'rooted for me?'"

My tongue felt thick in my mouth, but I somehow managed to speak without being too inarticulate. "I just... When I read all those myths—stories—it always made... me so mad that the gods got away with being so awful to mortals. I liked how you called them out on it in your tapestry."

If she had any eyebrows, I was sure Arachne would have raised all of them in surprise. "You liked that? Why?"

"If... If nobody says it, then... then nothing gets done, right? Nothing changes. That's not any way to live."

"You really thought what I did was worth "rooting for?" she pressed, folding two of her arms under her chin and leaning forward on them. Her eagerness was thinly veiled, though maybe I was just perceptive enough to not misread it as something else.

"Of course!" I all but gushed. "You spoke out for women. I loved that, and I thought it wasn't right that Athena punished you for it."

The end of a third arm bent around a lock of her long, wavy hair that hung in front of her ear and stroked it up and down, twisting it around like she was a girl talking to her crush. I could tell she felt proud and loved the praise I was giving her, but there was something else about her posture that was hard to place. While I spoke, I noticed how a few of her eyes zipped away from me to glance at a specific spot on the grass a handful of times. At first it didn't seem like much of anything, but after nearly half a dozen glances I _had_ to know what she was looking at.

My arm trembled with the effort of supporting even just a little of my weight, but I pushed through it and managed to raise my torso enough to look around in the surrounding grass. Spiders crawled across the ground, sometimes throwing threads of their silk to link blades together, but a large circle was strangely untouched. Smack-dab in the middle of the ring was a familiar device: my Polaroid. With its many edges and corners, wouldn't the spiders have loved to spin webs off of it?

Now that our attention was on the same thing, the topic of conversation shifted to that. "You were wearing that when you arrived here. How can you bear to burden yourself with such a horrid presence?" Arachne asked, a note of disgust in her tone.

"What're you talking about?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at her while I dropped back onto the spider-thread pillow and rolled onto my side to be in a more comfortable position.

"Do you not feel it emanating from that... _thing?_ " she gasped, all eight of her eyes wide in disbelief. "It smells awful! I cannot help but think of a manticore or a Gorgon every time I catch a whiff of that _stench_." Her nose wrinkled to help drive her point further home.

"You do smell faintly of it, also," Arachne continued, "though in a different way. It is hard to place. Where did you find such an artifact?"

'Artifact...?' "That's my camera. It lets me take pictures and print them out on paper instantly," I explained. "What do you mean, though? I don't smell anything off about it..."

"Of course you wouldn't. A human nose would be incapable of sensing such a subtle odor, but I and my children do not like it at all. I would very much like to rid us all of it."

Finally, my heart rate spiked as she rose to her eight feet and walked over to my Polaroid. She lifted a spindly limb high in preparation to bring it down on my camera. "Wait, don't!" I yelled, reaching a hand out toward her and my most prized possession.

Arachne looked surprised at me over her shoulder, though she still hesitated. "Why not?"

"Please don't break it," I pleaded while fighting to rise to my knees. It made the world's axis tilt crazily again, but I refused to fall over. "That's _really_ important to me. My dad gave it to me when I was twelve!"

"I told you not to try and move around, you stubborn girl," she reminded me peevishly. "Lie down and rest. I will not break your artifact if that is what you wish."

I did as I was told, sinking into the matted silk as fast as I could without giving myself the land version of the bends. "Thank you... Arachne?"

"Hmm~?" she hummed in response while moving past me to attend to a length of webbing stretched across the maze corridor. Her hind legs grabbed onto the silk threads she produced from her abdomen, but I averted my gaze before I could see much of it.

"How am I not dead?" I asked quietly, clenching the hand in front of my face into a fist on the pillow. "You bit me earlier."

She didn't reply right away; it was like she was having trouble finding the right words. "It's... Well... You can call it a whim, if you must. As for how, I naturally create an antidote to my own venom. Without it, I doubt I would survive for very long; it is something of a weakness in being half-human, half-spider."

My eyes widened at the new tidbit of knowledge. She would die if she didn't make her own antidote? How terrifying that must be...

"I _do_ suppose this means you owe me a life debt now," Arachne realized, sounding mischievous and all too pleased with herself. "Considering how I saved you from the brink of Hades."

"I-I'm very grateful," I stammered out. "But I don't know if I can stay with you for long, unfortunately. I'm kind of in the middle of training under Pandora and—oh, no! How long was I out?" This time when I sat up, reality remained right where it should be, which was a huge relief. Maybe it was a sign that I was getting better.

"How long have you been asleep?" Arachne rephrased. "It's impossible to say, really. Time does not flow very evenly in this realm." She glanced over at a web and focused curiously on the handful of spiders crawling around on the threads. "Oh, that long? Thank you, darlings~"

She turned back to me and delivered the news. "My children tell me it has been close to fourteen of the living world's hours. Does that mean anything to you?"

"F... _Fourteen?_ " I squeaked. "I was asleep for _that long?_ Oh, no, oh, crap, I—Dora must be so worried—what do I do, what do I do?"

"Perhaps not passing out again would be a decent place to begin?" Arachne suggested with a knowing look on her many-eyed face. "Why does this matter to you so dearly?"

"B-Because I'm training right now to survive in this maze a-and it's been so long, I should be done by now but I'm just lost and my teacher's going to think I failed her and died or something--!"

I knew I was rambling, but I couldn't stop myself. My mind had gone into overdrive, throwing at me everything that made me anxious all at once. If I didn't get through this maze, Dora would worry and Pandora would say I've failed her training, and then where would that leave me? I needed to get through this maze as fast as I could, but I was never told what to look for!

"So, it wasn't a crime that sent you into this maze?" Arachne looked entirely baffled at the idea with how she tilted her head to the side and narrowed a few of her eyes while the rest widened. "How curious. Only those who have done something truly appalling to Pandora are sent in here with nary a weapon to aid them."

"Wha...?" Now it was my turn to be baffled. "People get sent here to die?"

"No, not to die," she corrected me. "To be punished. Severely."

"Then why did she think I could _do_ this?" I wailed, covering my eyes with both hands. "I barely lasted five _minutes_...!"

Arachne didn't say anything for a few moments, but something small tickled my bare arm and made me look. A spider, black and brown like its mother, waved a pair of arms at me like it was trying to get my attention. Though I had never been all that afraid of spiders, my heart leaped into my throat at the possibility that it was going to bite me like Arachne had.

"You have an idea?" Arachne asked, looking intrigued and focused on the little spider on my arm. "Oh, do tell~"

I waited through a few seconds of silence before speaking up. "U-Uhm... what's it saying?"

"He thinks we should help you find your way out of this maze," Arachne translated. "Oh, that _is_ an idea. But do enough of you want to go with her?"

Another period of silence followed her question as they answered in their own spider-y sort of way. Slowly, a grin spread of Arachne's face, showing off her deadly fangs—and I would know. "It looks like the gods are smiling upon you today—Well. It just occurred to me that you never told me your name, girl."

"It's Camry," I said, offering her a smile. "And maybe they are. I mean, you saved my life."

"Indeed I did," Arachne agreed, a pleased smile on her face. "And I'll grant you one last boon. If it worked for Theseus, I fail to see how it would not work for you, Camry. _What an odd name_..." she added under her breath.

I raised an eyebrow. "Wait, Theseus?"

"He used a ball of string to guide him through the minotaur's maze beneath Crete," she explained while the last pair of her legs moved busily behind her. Something told me I ought to be glad I couldn't see what she was doing; my suspicions were proved correct when she produced a ball of white spider's silk peppered with a few black dots—more spiders? The one on my arm danced around in a circle and clapped two of his "hands" together with apparent glee.

"And this is what you will now do as well," Arachne stated confidently as she deposited the grapefruit-sized ball into my waiting hands. The little guy that had apparently convinced her to do this crawled down my arm and jumped onto the ball, burrowing himself in the silky threads. If I wasn't mistaken, were they glowing? The light was faint, but I could have sworn it was there. How strange... Maybe it was because this was ghost silk?

"Okay... So I make sure I unravel this so I can back-track, right?" I asked, and Arachne rolled four of her eyes in response.

" _No_ , you _throw_ it down a random corridor and hope for the best," she replied sarcastically. "Yes, use it to help you rule out dead ends. You do not have an infinite supply, however, even with a few of my children accompanying you to make more silk. Use it wisely."

"I will," I promised, beaming up at her while I rolled it around between my palms. "You have _no_ idea how grateful I am for you doing this, Arachne."

"And I am grateful to you for recognizing true talent," she answered with a spider-esque version of a curtsy. "Take care of my children. If even one of them returns to me injured, you _will_ feel my wrath."

"D-Duly noted."

Meanwhile~

As she paced, Dora's heels echoed throughout the near-empty space of Pandora's acropolis. Despite how ancient the marble flooring was, she certainly was doing it noticeable damage by eroding a rut across the hall. Pandora looked on, absolutely bored, from her veritable throne at the far end.

"Dora, _please_ , you mustn't let yourself get so worked up over this," she drawled, resting her cheek in one of her palms. "She will be fine in there, I assure you."

"But it's been _hours_ since she went in there!" Dora fretted, whirling on her long-time friend indignantly. "We have no idea if she's hurt or trapped or—"

"Your lack of confidence in your student has me thinking you do not think she is strong enough after all," she observed, narrowing her crimson eyes at the blonde ghost princess. "And yet you were telling me just the opposite not long ago."

Dora drew back, looking chagrined. "I... It isn't that I don't have confidence in her, because I certainly do. She has _amazing_ untapped potential—but that's just the problem! It's very, very untapped! We haven't had all that much time to help her hone her abilities."

"Then this is what she needs," Pandora reasoned coolly. "The pressures of the maze will ignite her inner fire, and the foes will give her practice with fighting—although it would seem she has already had some of that, wouldn't it."

"Indeed it would..." Dora had to agree, though it did not make her that happy. "Even so. I feel like you did not prepare her enough to face the dangers in that maze, Pandora. Isn't there something you can do about _that?_ "

"If she's as well-read as she demonstrated at your party last night, then she is already as prepared as she needs to be," Pandora stated, looking entirely convinced. "You needn't worry. I expected that she would take a while to pass through the maze, since it is not an easy challenge. In myths, many brave heroes took _years_ to find their way home again."

Dora's groan echoed even louder than her footsteps.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anyway, thank you for reading! I hope you'll leave me a comment to let me know you're still interested in reading more of this story. Bye~!


	21. Chapter 21

Time is never seamless throughout the Ghost Zone as eras shifted between personal realms and gave the illusion of a world without order. Perhaps without Clockwork, it would have devolved into exactly that. Launched back into a world that only existed in the pages of a textbook, waiting for Camry to return from her task made Dora feel like time itself had just stopped altogether. That was why, when Pandora suddenly sat up, Dora had not been expecting it so soon. She was on her tired feet in an instant and floated into the air, where she anxiously moved to begin pacing all over again. 

"There's no need for that, Dora," the Greek ghost told her quickly as she, too, rose from her seat. "It would seem your pupil has managed to draw close to the exit of the maze."

"She has?" Dora gasped, her crimson eyes shining with happiness. "But you said it could take--"

"Yes, I did say that, but those were _humans_ I referred to," she interrupted. "Come, let us go greet her with congratulations."

Though she didn't know the exact location of the maze's exit, Dora still managed to beat Pandora there in her haste to make sure Camry was alright. After well over a full human world day in the maze, she was unlikely to come out of this adventure unscathed. The hedge walls loomed high over Dora's head as she stood right in the middle of the exit and wrung her hands together. With a gentle smirk, Pandora put a hand on her friend's shoulder and guided her a few paces back from the maze. 

"She will find her way back to you in due time," she assured the blonde princess, who quickly nodded without taking her eyes off of the maze. 

The seconds turned into minutes, and those minutes ticked by until a full fifteen of them had passed. Dora's impatience steadily became harder to conceal, with her eyebrows furrowing while she bounced on the balls of her feet. Just as their wait began to creep toward the 20-minute mark, a huge tongue of fire blew up into the air over the hedge wall and was followed by a familiar, wordless yell of indignation. 

"Hey, _hey_ \-- I said " _No, thank you_ " a _hundred_ times already!" That was Camry's voice! And she didn't sound very far away at all! Dora's mouth opened to call out, but Pandora's two left hands quickly blocked her from shouting anything.

"Do not interfere with her training," she warned her sternly. "This is almost over. You can wait a little bit longer."

A small, blue-haired shape dashed by at breakneck speed at the far end of the maze's home stretch; a gaggle of taller, leaner shapes that were very clearly on fire darted after her. Whether that was their natural state or they had been set on fire by the pyro-savvy spirette remained to be seen. The sounds of a struggle followed their disappearance from sight, and more jets of flame lit up the leaves. With a hand on her chin, Pandora muttered something about "fire-proofing the maze" to herself. Branches broke, leaves flew into the air, and all too soon Camry was once again standing at the other end of the last corridor. Her chest heaved with exertion as she pivoted on her toes to look back at the creatures that had been chasing her, but her attention diverted to the two women waiting for her.

It was like the world's last ray of hope lingered in her sphalerite eyes when she took off toward them, pumping her arms and moving her short legs as fast as they could carry her toward the metaphorical finish line. Dora all but leaped into the air for joy and extended her arms out toward the younger girl, beckoning her to run faster. "You can do it, Camry! Just a little further!" 

Her escape from the maze was as picturesque as any movie would have wanted it, with her mad dash to freedom ending in the transition from shade to sunlight and her enemies freezing at the precipice behind her. Perhaps, however, a movie would have left her spectacular trip over a loose stone out of the script. On her face and limp from exhaustion, Camry lay there, sprawled out. Her clothes smoked where they weren't torn or stained, and both of her riding boots were missing. Bright green ectoplasm had caked over a cut on her forearm, but that looked to be the worst of her injuries.

"Excellent work getting through the maze so quickly," Pandora said to the prone girl as if this was the most natural thing in the world. Dora's arms were frozen in midair, still reaching for the teen that lay at her feet, as she stared. "I am eager to hear how you did."

"Oh, I'll _bet_ ," Camry grumbled testily. She shakily accepted Dora's hand up and slowly rose to her feet; now that her muscles had had a chance to be still, they felt like seizing up and realizing just how sore they were. "Ow... _How_ could you do that to me?" 

"Do what?" the Greek ghost inquired. 

"That maze is a _punishment_ for people who've angered you," she stated with an index finger jabbed in the maze's general direction. "They're not supposed to make it out of there alive! Or undead! Or whatever!"

"It is a punishment, not a death sentence," Pandora corrected her casually with a pair of arms folded over her chest. Leaning on Dora's shoulder, Camry glared up at the giant woman; any trace of awe she'd had for the veritable goddess had vanished in the wake of her anger. "Perhaps you should look at it this way: you made it through in one piece, which is more than what some can say. You should be grateful for the learning experience." 

'Oh, no' Dora winced as she realized exactly what was about to happen mere milliseconds before it actually happened. Had she been any other type of ghost besides a dragon, she wouldn't have been able to handle coming anywhere near Camry, much less supporting the exhausted girl.

" _'Grateful for the learning experience?'_ " Camry all but snarled. Heat pooled in her stomach, her calves, her palms, her fingertips, on her tongue-- the light of her inner fire glowed hotter and hotter as her anger grew. "I can't even _begin_ to count how many times I was nearly _disemboweled_ in there! , _Everything_ in that maze wanted to _kill_ me! If I didn't have this ball of silk, I _never_ would've found my way out!" 

To make her point clear, she held up said ball of silk, which was about the size of a tennis ball and had a thin, glowing thread trailing back into the maze. Without even really having to think about it, Camry began to twist up the ball, which pulled the thread back into it. Pandora raised a curious brow at the sight. "Emulated the myth of Theseus, did you? I suppose if that is what you must do... How in all the worlds did you manage to steal from Arachne without losing a limb or an eye?" 

"I _didn't_ steal it; she _gave_ it to me," she shot back, bristling at the implication that she was a thief. "Oh, and _by the way_ \--"

'All this negative feedback isn't good for her psyche and developing core' Dora thought to herself as her grip on Camry's shoulder tightened ever so slightly. 'I need to keep her away from Pandora for a while, if just long enough for her to cool down.' 

"Camry, I'm so glad you're alright," Dora spoke up, yanking the younger girl into a full embrace that lasted longer than it probably should have. The edges of the Polaroid, still undamaged after everything, that hung around Camry's neck pressed into both of them as it was sandwiched between their torsos. "I've been worried _sick_ about you! How did you do in there? Did you have to fight many monsters? What happened, exactly? Tell me _everything_." 

As she rambled, Dora led Camry away from the maze and said nothing to Pandora, who only nodded in understanding when the princess glanced over her shoulder to shoot her long-time friend an apologetic glance. Slowly, Camry began to simmer down, and soon her skin temperature had reached a point just above safe human levels. The silk quickly returned to the ball, and it became its original grapefruit size once more. All of the tiny spiders inside had jumped ship a while ago. 'I guess that means this is mine now?' a rational part of her brain guessed. 

Dora let out a heavy breath once they were out of sight of the vast maze and on the front steps of Pandora's temple. "Oh, my goodness," she sighed. "Camry, dear, you really did have me worried. Why were you in there for so long?"

The blue-haired girl had quieted, choosing to fiddle with the ball of thread instead of fume quite so hotly. She still simmered, and wisps of smoke drifted up from the ends of her hair, but it was a big improvement. Back there, Dora feared she would quite literally explode with fiery rage and, heaven forbid, even try to attack Pandora. Perhaps it was just paranoia-- or maybe it had been something only her scalier side could detect-- but something about Camry right then had thoroughly scared her. Thankfully, she seemed back to her old self, if not even more withdrawn than she'd been when they'd first met. 

"Come on, Camry," Dora said, her tone warm and motherly. "Let's go back to the palace and rest. No more training for today--"

Her words halted on the tip of her tongue when Camry's arms were suddenly around her middle and she'd buried her face in Dora's chest. Judging by the sniffling sounds and how her whole body trembled, Camry was fighting to keep sobs from escaping her. All Dora could do was smile ever so faintly and wrap her arms around the younger girl to pull her close, stroking the smoke and ash out of her hair in the meantime. "You were very brave for going in there, even if it was harder than you thought. I'm proud of you."

Her sniffles grew louder, but Camry refused to full-on bawl on the front steps of Pandora's temple, where she could easily be seen by half the Ghost Zone. "I-I... I-I j-just--"

"Shhh," Dora whispered reassuringly. "Come on, no more tears. I know training is no picnic, but we can take a break for a little bit to help you recover your spirits."

Camry paused for a heartbeat and, despite how tumultuous her emotions had become, managed to crack a watery smile. "Was that a ghost joke?"

Dora offered a sly grin in return. "Perhaps it was. Now, come on. I'll let you ride on my back on the way home."

A slip of the tongue struck just then, unbeknownst to the blonde ghost as she transformed from her unassuming humanoid form into a spectacular beast of legend. Camry used her tiles as a staircase to slide into a spot between two of Dora's spinal spikes and held on tight. Then the two of them were soaring through the vast green void of ectoplasmic afterlife known by some as the Ghost Zone. As eerily intriguing as it was, Camry's eyes ghosted over everything without taking note of anything at all; her mind was elsewhere, still reeling from her ordeal in the maze and the reminder that she was far, far from her actual home. 

Tears welled up in her eyes at her memories of her own world, and she buried her face in the warm blue scales that covered powerful Dora's shoulders. On either side of her legs, her mentor's wings beat effortlessly, making great gusty sounds with each flap and pulling wind over her entire body. Maybe she couldn't fly herself, but this sensation was likely as close as she was going to get. 

'I never want to go back into that maze again' Cam thought wearily. 'All this training... Why did I even go through with it in the first place? I knew I should've trusted my gut; that was the _stupidest_ mistake I've _ever_ \--'

The epiphany hit her like a wall of wind slapping her face and drying the tear tracks on her cheeks. 'Home... _training_... I'm training because I have to do it. I have to go home, but I can't without their help. Dora's, Pandora's, Danny's-- I need all of their help if I'm ever getting home again.

'I'm doing it for _all of them_. I'll figure out what's going on, and get strong enough to go home and fix whatever's happening there. That dream with the snakes in Saoirse's house _has_ to be connected somehow.'

Dora flew on silently, unaware of the change in her student's outlook on her current situation. Glancing out to her right, Camry caught sight of a floating door with a sun-like motif etched into the purple wood. Her eyebrows knit together. Why was it suddenly bending like in the heat off of a car sitting out in the middle of August? 

'Ugh, it makes me feel sick just looking at it' she thought, shutting her eyes and resting her head on Dora's shoulders again. With her ear pressed against the dragon ghost's body, Camry could have sworn she heard something akin to a slowed heartbeat deep inside. Its faint rhythm was soothing, coaxing her muscles to loosen after so much stress, and her eyes drifted shut of their own accord.

Despite her world going dark, she could still tell it was warping the same way that door had. Why that door in particular? Why had it done that at all? Was this just a Ghost Zone thing, or something else?

Definitely something else. Something _big_. 

Camry's POV~

" _¡Ve ahora! ¡Salí!_ " Whoever was screaming sounded terrified for her life by the way her voice cracked. The squeak of sneakers on hardwood flooring followed, and I felt the odd sensation that I was shouldering open a door-- except that _I_ hadn't moved at all. What was this, an out-of-body experience of something that never happened to me?

'Okay, now I'm just confused.'

Bam! I was back on the ground, just like in Saoirse's house. The only difference was that I couldn't move, or slither, or whatever I'd done in that other dream-- vision? I was in a house, or maybe it was closer to an apartment with how narrow the entryway looked. Then again, my depth perception _had_ been severely messed with all of a sudden. 

" _¡Ve ahora! ¡Salí!_ " The same woman's voice yelled from somewhere else in the house. The extra walls between us muffled her shout. More footsteps again, and a door burst open at the end of the main hallway. A boy with tan skin and shaggy dark brown hair bolted toward me at top speed, a look of utter terror and confusion in his black opal eyes-- _Dude?_

Then his gaze landed on me, and he skidded to a stop only inches away from where I lay, completely frozen. I could only stare at him, so much taller and imposing from this perspective, as he stared back for a handful of seconds. Tears had welled up in his eyes, and the anger on his face twisted his features into something I never thought I would see in my short lifetime. His leg drew back, then came flying down at me so fast that it blurred in my hazy eyesight. In a strange case of deja-vu, right when he would have made contact I opened my eyes with a gasp and sat straight up only to hit my head where Dora's green spinal spike curved back over me like a barely-protective shield. 

Under me, Dora flinched at the sudden movement. "Camry, are you alright back there?"

"I-I..." I stuttered with one hand covering where my head throbbed dully. 

"You jumped all of a sudden. Did you fall asleep?" she asked curiously.

"M-Maybe... Maybe I did," was all I could think of to say in answer. My head spun with the implications of this strange phenomenon, especially because it had happened twice now! 

"Well, we're almost to the castle, so you can rest up in your room soon," Dora assured me.

'Something tells me I won't be able to sleep, even if I wanted to...'

~~

Omniscient POV~

The sun had gone down in Dora's realm, but that certainly didn't mean the castle was asleep. Since ghosts didn't have the biological need for it, it was common for there to be the sounds of chatter or work being done elsewhere well into the darkest hours of night. After returning from Pandora's realm, Camry had immediately retreated to her bedroom to try and regain some introvert energy. By being forced to fight for her life constantly in that maze, all her reserves had been drained dry. 

However, even after that vision of her other friend running for his life, sleep evaded Camry just as she predicted. She tried everything she could think of: meditating, massaging her sore muscles and pressure points, humming tunes, and even watching the clock tick the minutes away on her iPhone. 'Apparently, the world just wants to see me suffer' she thought bitterly as her mind wandered back to the maze. So many monsters, and only a few she could name off the top of her head, had taken one look at her and leaped at the chance to do her harm. 'Are all ghosts like that? Or just the ones trapped in a maze for all eternity?'

The bed creaked under her as she sat up and drew her knees up to her chest so she could rest her chin on them. 'I hope Dude is okay... That dream I had was scary. Or was it really a vision? I don't know if I can tell the difference, honestly.' 

But enough was enough. No more moping around in bed. She swung her legs over the side and got to her feet, which protested with their soreness as she put weight on them. Barefoot and dressed in a simple slip of a cream-colored nightdress, Camry made her way down to the ground level of the castle and, without even consciously realizing it until she stopped walking, found herself in front of the wooden door that led to Madison's sewing chamber. Some instinctive part of her raised a fist to knock, but apprehension stayed her hand for a handful of seconds. 

_Tock, tock, tock...!_ Her knuckles rapped on the wood.

There was the faint sound of chair legs being scraped against a stone floor, and then the door was opened to reveal Madison, her brown hair twisted up at the nape of her neck and a pin cushion strapped to her left wrist. "Yes? Oh, Camry, hello there! Is there something you needed from me?"

Try as she did to talk, words just wouldn't form on her tongue. She sufficed with shaking her head and looking at the ground mutely, feeling foolish for disturbing Madison while she was clearly hard at work on more important things. 

"Camry?" Madison coaxed curiously. "Would you like to come in?"

When Cam peeked up at Madison through her bangs, she saw a friendly smile and an arm pushing the door open wide enough to admit the both of them. "Y... Yeah, sure. Thanks, Madison."

"Of course," she responded kindly, allowing the door to fall closed gently behind her after they'd both crossed the threshold. 

"I'm not interrupting anything important, a-am I?" Camry asked. An empty stool sat next to the wall, so she picked it up and walked it over to the workbench littered with countless sewing items. 

"I was only stitching up the inseam on a new pair of trousers for you," Madison answered cheerfully. "Once I'm done, would you like to try them on? We can make sure they fit you well enough."

"Sure," she agreed. "Not that I don't trust your handiwork, though. Everything you've made for me fits so well."

"That's high praise. Thank you," the seamstress said with a respectful dip of her head. "I am glad I've done right by you."

"I-I should be the one thanking _you!_ " Camry said quickly, looking flustered with a blush spreading across her cheeks. "And I am-- that is-- I'm thanking you. For everything you've done for me. I really don't know what I would've done if you weren't there to help me all the time, Madison. I... I'm so, so grateful." 

She glanced up at Madison to see the ghost's eyebrows reaching up for her hairline out of surprise. "Well... What brought all this on?" she asked. "Is everything alright, Camry?"

"Yeah, I just... I dunno... After that maze, and everything that happened in there... I thought I'd never make it out, y'know?" Her hands curled into fists on top of her thighs, and faint, barely-there wisps of smoke wafted from between her fingers and into the air. "So maybe I should be showing more of my gratitude now, while I still can."

"Oh, Camry," Madison murmured, one hand drifting up so the tip of her index finger could barely touch her own lips. "You don't have to worry-- a ghost doesn't have to fear dying in the Ghost Zone. And that was only training, wasn't it? Surely it--"

"I didn't last five minutes on my own in there," Camry whispered. Her hand covered the spot on her neck where Arachne had bitten her; two perfect circles the size of pushpin heads still remained, perhaps forever. "If I hadn't told her how much I admired her, Arachne would have let her kids eat me."

"Wait-- did you say Arachne?" Madison gasped, ruby-colored eyes widening. "The legendary weaver ghost? Mother of all spiders? Said to produce a silk to strong and and versatile that it is nearly _indestructible?_ "

"Errr... I guess so?" Camry replied, raising an eyebrow at Madison's sudden burst of curious energy. "If she hadn't given me so much of her silk, I would've never found my way out of the maze at all--"

"She _gave_ you some of her silk?" Madison squealed. From her perch on her stool, she rocked side to side in apparent glee. "You're so lucky, Camry! That's a _revered_ prize among so many in the Ghost Zone. You must keep that safe with you at all times. Do you understand?"

"Uhhh... I don't-- really want it all _that_ much," Cam said slowly. "You can have it if you want."

" _What?_ " Apparently it _was_ possible for her eyes to go even wider. "You would give me something so valuable? But why? Do you not want to keep it for yourself?"

"Not really," she replied with a noncommittal shrug. "It's not like I have any real use for it. Outside of mazes, that is. And you clearly could use it with your sewing, since it's thread, so why not?"

"Oh, my goodness," Madison breathed, her hand fully covering her mouth. "Camry, I-- I don't know what to say-- Wait, actually, I think I do." Her demeanor had changed from a more intimate friend to the perfect picture of royalty staff. "While I am sincerely flattered by such a generous offer, I have a better idea. I could not bear to part you from a prize you yourself have earned from your hard work--"

"I mean, I didn't _really_ work for it--"

"--but I would be _honored_ to be given the privilege of working with it to make something for you out of the silk." With a gesture of one hand toward her workbench, Madison smiled invitingly. "I could infuse it into your ghostly outfit's design. Any article of clothing made out of such a fabled material would act as the perfect armor, so you would be even more protected from the ghosts seeking to do you harm."

"W... Wow, that-- that sounds pretty alright, actually," Camry replied honestly. "You would do that for me?"

"Absolutely! Without hesitation," Madison added. "Just being given the chance to work with Arachne's silk is more than enough for me." She rose from her stool and walked to another table pressed up against the wall farthest from the door. This particular desk was cluttered with paper rather than cloth, and sounds of shifting pages filled the room as she searched for the right ones. When she returned, Madison held two sheets in her hands. "Of course, this also means we need to decide what your outfit will look like in the end." 

A slow grin spread across Camry's face. "Okay. Let's do this."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Spanish)  
> ¡Ve ahora!: Go now!  
> ¡Salí!: Get out!
> 
> HA! Now we've met (briefly, vaguely) Camry's other friend! And yes, she said "Dude" because that's his name (well, it's what he goes by, anyway). I LOVE Dude, you have NO idea just how much! I can't wait to delve into his story more later on!
> 
> We'll won't see too much in the way of specifics for what happened in the maze, but it'll be referenced every so often. Kinda got a little tired of training montages, y'know? Please leave comments below, and kudos would be most appreciated! WUVS!


	22. Chapter 22

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Camry goes from (✿◠‿◠) to (งಠ_ಠ)ง

When dawn broke over the horizon, Dora rose from her bed with a smile on her face and a little pep in her step. Today was going to be _such_ a good day, filled with training and exercises to help her young pupil learn to control her powers. She got dressed slowly, taking care in choosing the perfect outfit and accessories, and padded out into the hall to see if Camry was awake yet. While it was true that she tended to sleep less and less those days, it was an unspoken agreement that neither Dora nor Madison would try to rouse her until a somewhat normal time for humans to get up. Dora figured it had something to do with replenishing her emotional energy and giving her the solitude she needed to recover after a hard day's work.

She knocked lightly, waited a few seconds, and got no reply. Curious, she tried the knob and found it to be unlocked, so she cautiously peered inside for any signs of her student. The bright pink flower from Dora's garden stood up in its vase, as sturdy and undying as everything else in the Ghost Zone, and Camry's Polaroid camera lay on top of the rumpled bedspread. 'Well, if that's in here, she can't have gone far' Dora rationalized wisely. 'She never leaves anywhere without that device.'

Then an idea hit her, and with a soft smile Dora breezed down the stairs silently, her feet a few inches off the ground. When she arrived at a plain-looking wooden door, familiar giggling voices drifted through to reach her ears. Her hand found the knob and turned it, and the voices paused at her intrusion. 

"Oh, _there_ you both are!" Dora gasped, taking in the sight of Madison and Camry flitting around a mannequin while their arms were full of cloth and sewing patterns. "Have you two been in here all night?"

"Madam!" Madison startled, her eyes wide as she realized her other duties had been neglected in favor of working on the project with Camry. "Oh, my goodness, I am so sorry! We must not have been watching what time it was--"

"A-And _I_ kept trying to get more and more creative, so it's really all _my_ fault--" Camry piped up quickly.

Dora giggled behind a gloved hand; their rapid excuses quieted. "I'm not _mad_ at either of you. I was just wondering where you had gone off to. What have you been working on?"

"Oh, uhhh," Camry stammered as she struggled to shift the pile of supplies in her arms without dropping anything. 

"We were making Camry an outfit for when her training is complete," Madison answered. One of her hands shot out and braced a side of Camry's pile, which stopped rocking with her desperate attempts to keep it all in her arms. "So far, we've agreed on the shape of the bodice and the color scheme, but the rest is still undecided."

"Look at what Madison made!" Camry exclaimed right when Madison finished talking. The youngest of the three women present rushed to set down everything on the table, then dug around for whatever it was she wanted to show Dora. Her fingers latched onto the telltale gossamer cloth and pulled, freeing it from the stack of supplies. In the air, the sheer fabric fluttered behind the teen as she ran it over to the door. "She made it out of Arachne's ball of silk!"

Held up at the shoulders, the item appeared to be a short-sleeved shirt with a large, loose neckline. Its remarkable sheerness made it look like it barely weighed an ounce, and when Dora peered through it much of the color in the backdrop behind the shirt looked to have been leeched out of existence. 

"Arachne's silk is wonderful for making lightweight armor," Madison began, her excitement showing by how she itched to bounce up and down on the balls of her feet. "Its magical properties make it flexible, weightless, and durable, so it can absorb shock and will resist attackers' energy."

"And we found out that it can change _shape_ , too!" Camry squealed. She ran back to Madison, who grabbed a sleeve and stayed where she was while Camry ran to the far side of the room. The shirt stretched between them with little tension in the folds of fabric. Camry let go, but the shirt didn't retract to its original shape immediately. "Which means I can probably use it like a shield or something!"

"This is incredible!" Dora cheered enthusiastically. "You both have done such a wonderful thing with this."

"It really was all Madison, _trust_ me," Camry assured her mentor. By the table, Madison's cheeks bashfully heated up with a darker shade of green. "But I'm not gonna lie; I feel, like, _so_ much more ready to take on training with this on."

"That's excellent to hear, because I definitely know Pandora is going to want to cover a lot of ground now that you've passed her preliminary test." The room quieted, much to Dora's bewilderment, and Camry turned her gaze down to the floorboards on her left. "Is... something the matter?"

"Can... Can we maybe just, I dunno, not... go... to Pandora's place ever again?" she asked awkwardly, rubbing the back of her neck without looking up. "I mean, I'd be _totally_ okay with that. Absolutely, totally okay with that. One-hundred percent."

"Camry..." Dora let out a gentle sigh and shook her head. "As much as I know you did not like the maze, Pandora is most likely the only one who can properly train you. We also need to work faster, to make sure you learn what you need to know before your core develops fully and you graduate from being a spirette. Time is _not_ on our side at the moment."

"And I get that, but isn't there another way?" Camry complained petulantly. By the pout on her face, she wasn't about to give in so readily. "And I did not just "not like" the maze, by the way. That entire ordeal was _terrifying_. I had to run from these creepy ladies that were on fire and trying to probably eat me! To name _one_ instance."

"I'm sure her training won't be anything like that anymore," Dora assured her, her tone taking on a soothing quality. "That was a... special case. And I've made sure to talk to her about not giving you so many dangerous surprises."

That promise had Camry soften a little, given away by how her shoulders relaxed from their previous tense posture and how her frown leveled out a bit, but it certainly didn't convince her yet. "Still..."

"I know you do not want to hear this, but this truly is for your own good," the dragon ghost began after silence had fallen over the sewing room for a few metaphorical heart beats. "I cannot teach you the things you need to know as a ghost with a budding volcanic core, and Pandora can. You need her guidance if you are to truly master your powers."

"I know... I just... I don't want to go back there after everything that happened." One of her hands wandered up to pensively press against the right side of her neck. "And she thought it was actually a good idea to throw me in there with no preparation at all. If I can't even last five minutes in the preliminary test, how am I going to survive her _real_ training?"

"With this," Madison spoke up confidently as she held out the spider-silk shirt. It had silently shrunk back to its original size during the ongoing conversation. "This would be the perfect opportunity to see how well it works as armor, don't you think? If Pandora is so tough to train under, then proving that you can withstand her training while wearing this can only mean two things: that you're well protected by this garment, and that you really _can_ do this."

"We both believe in you, Camry," Dora tacked on after a grateful glance sent Madison's way. "Won't you believe in yourself?"

Her sphalerite eyes darted back and forth between the two ghosts for a few seconds. Then, like dawn breaking over the horizon a second time that day, the corners of her lips twitched up into a tentative half-smile. "Well... I mean, if you don't mind me wearing that so soon after you made it, then... I guess I can test it out." 

"Then let's get you ready for the day!" Dora cheered happily, clapping her hands once and leaving them pressed together while she beamed. "We don't want to waste _any_ time. Pandora is expecting us!"

~

"So, you really did come back," was the first thing Pandora commented on when Camry and Dora arrived on her doorstep less than an hour later. "I almost expected you to quit."

Indignation flared up deep in Camry's chest, but she sufficed with glowering up at the _much_ taller ghost. "I've got things to do and a home to hopefully get back to eventually, so if this is how I'm gonna accomplish all that, I'm gonna do this. Your maze was a nightmare, but I've had worse ones." 

"Quite the tough talk for someone of your _stature_ ," Pandora replied, raising an amused eyebrow at the way faint wisps of smoke began to curl off the tips of Camry's blue hair. "Are you sure you can handle it? Or will you burst into tears again and slink off in defeat?"

Dora's eyes were wide with alarm as she looked back and forth between a cocky Pandora and the livid Camry. 'Why is she egging her on like this? Is this another test? Oh, _please_ don't be making a mistake, Pandora. She's very sensitive to negative feedback!'

Camry's developing core flared brighter, bringing a dulled orange color to the apples of her cheeks as well as other high points on her skin. Something in her eyes changed right then, though it was hard to exactly say what. "You think I can't handle your training? I made it through that maze in a _day!_ I can take on you-- I can take on _anyone!_ "

"Then let's see it happen!" Pandora announced, waving her staff in countless circles above all three of their heads. A whirlwind of pink energy enveloped all of them, but deposited them in different places: Pandora and Dora on a raised dais overlooking a walled field of dirt, and Camry found herself smack dab in the center of said field. She staggered on her feet, thrown off by the teleportation, but shook it off and took a curious gander at her new surroundings. 

"Pandora!" Dora gasped, her eyes wide as she realized what exactly was going on. "Her negative feedback-- this is too much! I thought you promised you would not throw so many dangerous surprises at her!"

"And this is only one surprise," Pandora countered calmly as she moved to stand at the very front of the platform. "Camry, here is your first exercise: you will defeat the enemies that attack you, but do not let your aggression get the better of you. If you do, you will fail the task."

" _What_ aggression?" she yelled back, rage boiling in her middle. Then she shrank back, eyes round; Pandora riled her up on purpose to make it harder to win! The thought had her teeth grinding with fury. 

"Oh, and one more thing," the Greek goddess added. "You are _not_ allowed to use your fire powers whatsoever!"

" _What?_ " she shrieked, whirling around to fully face Pandora and kicking up a plume of dust in the process. "Those are, like, the only ones I know how to use!"

"Keep your eyes on the enemy," was all Pandora said in response. 

Heavy footsteps were fast approaching on her right side, accompanied by heavy snorting breaths. "What ene--?" she started to say, turning far too slowly to react in time to the minotaur charging directly at her with fire in his eyes. His lowered snout connected with her midriff, forcing the air out of her lungs in a loud " _Oof!_ " while he carried her several yards across the field. 

The minotaur slid to a stop, and momentum threw Camry into the air and even further. Without the white tiles that appeared under her on instinct, she would have certainly crumpled against the high stone wall that ringed the training field. Sucking in wheezing breaths, Camry staggered to her feet on one of said tiles and leaned against another, feeling weak in the knees after such a dizzying blow. And yet, for some reason, that hadn't felt nearly as painful as it ought to have. A hand wandered down to grab the filmy fabric of her new armor shirt. 

" _You_ again?" she gasped, putting both fists up in defense. "I thought you'd had enough of me back in the maze!"

The minotaur snuffled mightily, his hot breath blowing even more dust into the air. The tip of one of his horns was missing-- a reminder of what had happened back in the aforementioned maze. Though the gash on her arm had healed entirely overnight, Camry could still feel the throbbing as her own memento of her first encounter with this particular opponent. Towering over her at an easy ten feet tall, the minotaur was an imposing figure with huge human upper body muscles, the furry head and legs of a bull, and a snarl full of disgustingly yellow teeth. 

He pawed at the ground, scratching deep gouges in the packed dirt, in preparation for another charge. Standing atop her tile, Camry crouched in anticipation of a jump she knew she would be making to dodge. There was no way to outrun her opponent, especially in an enclosed space such as this. 'But how am I going to defeat him? Last time, I only escaped after I made him mad and broke one of his horns by accident.'

"N-No time to think about that now!" escaped her out loud as she leaped to the right, narrowly missing the sharp tip of his one unbroken horn. "Yikes!" The minotaur's momentum brought him forward too far and caused him to smash into the wall surrounding the arena. Cracks splintered up the ancient stone and broke the ground beneath his hooves. Shards of earth were sent flying into the air in all directions! Camry took the opportunity of her opponent's distraction to dash to the far end of the field, putting as much room as possible between her and the beast.

With her feet back on the ground, she dug her heels in and bent her knees, keeping her stance low and sturdy. 'How do I take down a guy _literally_ twice my size? It's not even an exaggeration! I gotta remember what they said in self defense class-- about attackers that are way bigger and stronger than I am.'

_"Listen up, ladies. There's something you all need to know about the male body-- and no, it's not a giggle-worthy topic, so don't start. If there's one thing you can almost always count on, it's that a man's center of gravity is higher than a woman's, which makes them easier to get off balance. All it takes is a well-placed push or throw, and you can use their own momentum against them. This will help you take down attackers taller, wider, and stronger than you in order for you to get away with fewer injuries."_

'That's it' she thought with her eyes a fraction wider than they were a second ago. 'And he's a bull, _so_...' 

Camry crossed her arms over her stomach, grabbed hold of the hem of her new shirt, and whipped it off over her head as quickly and smoothly as possible. In the makeshift stands, Dora took a fearful step closer to the edge and stared with her hands worriedly pressed together in front of her chest. "What is she doing? She _needs_ that!" 

The transparent fabric flapped in the wind enticingly as Camry gripped it by the shoulders and held it out at her side. She only had eyes for the bull, which had regained its footing and was snorting angrily again in her direction. A nervous sweat beaded on her forehead; a single, tiny droplet slid down from temple to chin and fell to the dirt far, far-- well, maybe not _that_ far-- below. Its glittering in the sun caught the minotaur's eye and spurred him into a second charge, but this time she knew it was coming.

His meaty arms swung at his sides. Both hooves scratched furrows in the earth. Clouds of dust to rival sandstorms billowed up into the air in their best attempt to block out the sun. Cloth in hand, Camry spun it into a tight roll, like a bully in the locker room preparing to unleash hell on his peers' rear ends with a damp towel. Then, in a turn of events, she began running as well.

_Right toward the minotaur._

"Camry--!" Dora choked out, reaching a gloved hand toward her student.

'I can do this, I can do this, I can do this--' she chanted in her head like a personal mantra. The minotaur was gaining speed and covering ground at an incredible pace. If she didn't time this right, she'd be almost entirely unprotected as well as royally screwed, if not shish-kabobed on his horn. 

'Three, two, one-- now!' 

Camry dropped into a slide on the side of her thigh and tucked her chin down while throwing one end of the wadded shirt out to the side. It bent around the minotaur's rather bony ankle, and she caught the loose end just before she slid too far and lost her upper hand on her opponent. With both ends in hand Cam pushed off the ground with a tile as her leverage and dragged the minotaur face-first into the ground, where he lay too stunned to move. 

As graceful as the execution had been, her wrap-up at the end could have used some polishing. Her own momentum carried her too far as well-- right into a somersault that ended with her on her back in the dust, unharmed if a little dizzy as well. Her chest heaved up and down as she struggled to take in deep enough breaths that weren't saturated with debris, but she was alright. She'd taken down her opponent with her resourcefulness. 

That was the goal of all this training, right?

Grunts and weak mooing urged Camry back onto her feet, and she spun around to see the minotaur struggling to lift his head from just a few inches off the ground. His one sharp horn had gotten lodged into the ground, and despite his impressive neck muscles he was unable to free it. 

'He'll break that one off, too, if he keeps doing that' Camry realized with a troubled frown. Her common sense screamed at her for this, but she moved to crouch next to his head and put a gentle hand on the spot in front of one of his furry bull ears. "Hey, don't do that. I'll dig you out if you calm down."

All she received in response was a round of angrier snorts that kicked up their own cloud. Finally, the bigger dust clouds had settled, and she stood up straight and moved away from her opponent. A dull cracking sound later, the minotaur was back on all fours and free, if clearly disheartened by his now broken horn. "Sorry..." Camry whispered to him.

"You did it!" Dora cheered with her arms in the air. From a few steps behind her, Pandora looked on with a rather pleased half-smile on her face.

"Well, I suppose we'll call this a victory, since you incapacitated your opponent without using your fire powers," she allowed. "But do not let this victory convince you to be idle in your training, Camry. You still have a lot left to learn."

"I kinda figured that would be the case," Cam muttered under her breath before taking off into a jog back toward her two teachers. As she ran, she threw on her shirt again and tried to brush off the dirt stuck in its folds. 

~~

"Maybe it's about time we let her rest for a while," Dora suggested a few hours later as she watched her student struggling to take deep enough breaths between sparring matches. Sweat dripped from her brow and darkened the armpits and back of both her shirts; if she focused on them in particular, Dora could see the muscles of Camry's arms and legs quivering with the effort of moving.

"Just a quick break, then," Pandora caved begrudgingly. "You there!" A servant of her realm stood at obedient attention immediately. "Retrieve some cold refreshments, and make sure to add extra ectoplasm to one of them!"

"Right away, Your Grace!" he chirped before disappearing as if he had never existed in the first place. 

With that taken care of, Pandora firmly planted the butt of her staff into the ground and bellowed out, "That is enough training for now! Cease fighting!"

Both the cyclops and Camry paused in their attacks and dropped their weapons; one of them was far more willing to throw hers down than the other. She followed it down to the ground and lay there on her back, one arm thrown dramatically across her forehead while she wheezed. Camry could just imagine lying in a pool of her own sweat, which was exactly what it felt like in her long-sleeved shirt, pants, and tall riding boots. " _Uuugh_...!"

"That was quite some improvement you showed out there," Dora said appraisingly as she leaned over the younger girl and provided some much-needed shade with her shadow. At least it pulled a weak smile onto Cam's face.

"You really... think... so?" she gasped in reply.

"Yes, I do. I'm not the only one who thinks so, too. Pandora believes we will be able to finish your training before your core fully develops at this pace."

Camry sat up at little then and, braced on one elbow behind her, accepted the notably green glass of 'water' offered to her on a tray by one of Pandora's servants. She immediately pressed its cold, damp-with-condensation side against her forehead and peered up at Dora, silhouetted by the light of a fictional sun. "When is that, exactly? You've been saying that a lot lately-- talking about my core being developed, I mean."

"There's no real way of saying _exactly_ when it will happen," she answered, "but there is a way of guessing by knowing how long you've been a spirette. There's a fairly standard range of time for this sort of thing to begin and end: roughly between one and two months of Earth time."

"And I've been around... Wow, I don't think I actually know how long it's been." Camry took a long, drawn-out gulp of the lime-tinted water before continuing. "Time hasn't been all that linear lately."

"Indeed," Dora giggled. "I'd say it's been at least four weeks since you came to live with me."

"That long _already?_ "

She nodded, making her braid swing back and forth where it dangled over her shoulder. Dora's face suddenly lit up as an idea came to her, and she straightened to look back over at Pandora. Camry pouted into the rim of her glass at the loss of her beloved shade. "Pandora! Why don't you tell us a bit more about volcanic cores while we rest? That way, it isn't like we are just sitting around."

"I suppose you will want to know what to expect from all of this," Pandora said as she came over. A hand on her chin, she frowned while trying to think of what exactly to say. "I certainly wish I had known that ghost longer... Well, the afterlife certainly was not easy for them. Though they had had their abilities for quite a while, they still had to deal with the occasional upheaval of magma every now and then-- sometimes at the most inopportune of moments." 

A faint smirk graced her lips at the thought. Maybe a funny or embarrassing memory? "And they often had outbursts of intense anger, though that may have been a product of their personality rather than their core."

"Did they have to get around on tiles, too?" Camry asked between sips. 

"Certainly," Pandora said. "Though theirs were circular and looked like rings fanning out from a pebble dropped into a calm pond. Sometimes, when the need arose, their tiles could grow larger than a coliseum."

"Whoa," Camry whispered. 'I wonder if I'll be able to do that some day...'

"However... I am unsure of what all I can tell you with absolute confidence. They were the only ghost I ever met with a volcanic core, and I did not know them for very long-- a handful of decades, at most. Something came up without warning: the entire Ghost Zone was thrown into an inexplicable war, and they disappeared at some point during it."

The way her face fell at the memories caused Camry and Dora to exchange unsure glances. What on earth could have happened so long ago? And this ghost, whose name they didn't know, must have met an untimely demise if Pandora had never seen them again, right? 

" _So_..." Camry drawled, stretching out the syllable far longer than necessary, "... am I ever gonna get control of going intangible? Or hovering, at least? I know I can't fly, but I can at least hover like how you two are right now, right?"

A wave of relief washed over Pandora's face as she was pulled off of Memory Lane and back into the present. "Those will come in due time. And, of course, you can only achieve this through training, so it's about time we got back to it! Get up! It's about time we found you a new sparring partner."

"Awww," she groaned as she forced her protesting muscles to obey her commands and work. Pandora was right, though; if she was running out of time, she needed to try her best and work as hard as she could.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I dunno if you can tell, but I am REALLY tired of writing training sequences. It's time to move the story along! HUZZAH! In the next chapter, we'll see a few changes of pace, so bear with me on this. I hope you'll comment, vote, and join me in the next update!


	23. Chapter 23

A few days later~

Weary and downtrodden by the rigorous last few days of training, Camry was all too glad to return to the castle and, more specifically, her private bathroom. It was time to climb into the tub and just soak for a while to help the stress flake off like old skin cells. Submerged up to her lips in the water she had heated with just a touch of her pointer finger, she held a hand, digits splayed out, above the meniscus and looked at her bitten nails. 'Wish I could paint them. Maybe I wouldn't be biting them if they tasted like nail polish.'

Of course, a lack of nail supplies wasn't why she had taken up her old habit. All the stress of Pandora's military-grade training on top of the recurring visions of her friends-- or maybe 'waking nightmares' was a better description-- had brought her anxiety levels up to their old heights, leaving her with few ways to cope in a realm that had not become all that familiar over time. Despite not once leaving the Ghost Zone since being left there by Danny a number of weeks ago, the swirling green void still felt as alien and foreboding as it had when she first laid eyes on it.

Her dejected sigh blew countless bubbles that burst into tendrils of steam and meshed with the rest of the vapor hovering over the tub. 'No matter what I tell myself, the Ghost Zone is never gonna feel like home. I wish Pandora had been able to find Clockwork, or that Danny and his friends and I had found him when we were all looking for him.' Now that she thought about it, that had technically only been roughly a month ago. It felt seven times longer than that since Dora first found her crying on that rocky ledge.

'Maybe I'll be able to go home soon. Maybe we'll find Clockwork, and he'll have all the answers. Maybe Saoirse and Dude are alright, and these weird dreams about them are just figments of my imagination. Maybe this _whole experience_ has just been one big coma hallucination, and I'm dreaming weird dreams because I'm doped up on pain medication in the hospital after a gas leak in the kitchen knocked me unconscious and...'

A muffled squeaking sound echoed in the all but silent bathroom as she let her shoulders slump back against the tub. 'Ugh, I really need to relax. Something tells me this isn't all just a dream.'

~

When her skin had become sufficiently prune-y, Camry emerged from the water and wrapped herself in a terrycloth robe. 'The same one I wore when Dora took me in. Wow, I'm suddenly all nostalgic over a _bathrobe_.' Pressing the collar of the garment to her nose, she closed her eyes and just focused on breathing for a moment. Take in how the scent is gentle, not abrasive like the old detergent Dad used to use. Take in how the plush fibers feel between your index and thumb. Listen to that rhythmic sound of water dripping from the ends of your hair and to the linoleum floor. 

Even in the brief spell of quiet and tranquility, it was impossible to hear Dora float in before she tapped her knuckles on the bathroom door. "Camry, are you in there?"

The blue-haired girl let out a surprised squeak at the sudden intrusion and quickly pulled the lapel of her robe closed over her chest. "Y-Yeah, I'm in here! I just, uh, was relaxing in the tub."

"After such a hard day of training, I'm not surprised," Dora chuckled in reply. "Are you decent? I have something exciting to tell you~!"

"Just a sec!" Camry called out as she struggled to tie the robe closed around her waist. When she'd successfully managed to make a bow that didn't fall apart a second later, she opened the bathroom door herself and looked up curiously at her teacher. "What's the exciting news?"

Dora didn't say right away, instead choosing to take her pupil by the hand and lead her out of her bedroom. "W-Wait a sec, sh-shouldn't I get dressed--?"

"There won't be any need for that, now come on!" Dora assured her giddily as she picked up the pace. 

The route they took was familiar: down the hall and a flight of stairs, a left turn, another left turn, down a hall on the first floor, and end in front of a wooden door. Madison's sewing room. Dora let herself in and dragged Camry in behind her, almost unable to contain her sheer excitement. Madison stood in front of her workbench; the grin on her face was easily as energetic as Dora's. 

A bundle of monochromatic cloth lay in her arms, and sitting by her feet was a pair of boots the color of gingerbread. Each sported two thick, tawny horizontal stripes that wrapped around the leg completely. Camry's eyes were wide and round as she realized what all of this meant. "Madison... You finished my outfit?"

Madison nodded, making her braids bob animatedly. "Are you ready to try it on?"

"I was _born_ ready!" Camry crowed with delight. Madison placed everything in her arms and directed her to a partition meant to be changed behind. On the side she and Dora could see hung a full-length mirror.

"I hope it fits well enough," Madison fretted as she waited for Camry to finish dressing. 

"So far, so good," Cam reassured her. The giddiness in the room was far too contagious, and Camry certainly was susceptible to its effects. She could hardly put it on fast enough! 

Finally the left and last boot was on her foot, and she took a moment to look down at herself. Everything fit well, clinging where it should and not restricting her mobility. Camry put on a brave face and stepped around the partition, into view of Dora and Madison. 

Their response was immediate squealing and fawning that had Camry's cheeks flare up with palpable, pleasantly embarrassed heat. She clapped her palms over her face and giggled, the sound muffled and high-pitched out of delight and nervousness. Dora pulled Camry's hands down and held them in both her own, beaming as wide as possible. The incredible sound of the three women's laughter filled every corner of the sewing room and spilled out into the hall.

"Wait, wait, wait!" Madison spoke up as she held aloft a pair of gloves. "That isn't everything." They slid over Camry's fingers and fit like... well, like gloves, of course. They were an interesting blue-grey color, imitating the smoke of summertime bonfires, and reached just past her wrists. "And last but not least... your spider-silk slip." 

The shirt went over her head and settled on her shoulders at a rakish angle. Both Madison and Dora took a step back to admire the final look. The princess's palms were pressed together in front of her nose, and Madison looked pensive with a hand on her chin and her other arm crossed over the bottom of her rib cage. "Hmm..." she hummed to herself.

"So, uh... How do I... look?" The poor hem of her shirt was strangled in her tight, nervous grip. 

"You... look like a hero," Dora said in a soft, awed voice that made Camry's eyes widen with surprise. 

" _What?_ A _hero?_ " she echoed, cupping her bright orange cheek in one palm. "N-No way, c'mon."

Madison nodded. "I can see it. I really can."

"Isn't that the effect you were going for when you designed this outfit?" Dora asked the two of them.

Camry toed the floor with one of her new boots and murmured a quiet, "I dunno... Maybe a _little_ bit..."

"Camry, you look _amazing_ ," Dora assured her with all the sincerity she could muster into one sentence. "Truly! I can see you doing great things-- not that you need a special set of clothing to do that."

If it was possible in any way, Camry felt her cheeks grow even hotter and brighter at such high praise. Now it was Madison's turn to talk, and she used her moment to explain the finer points of the get-up. 

"I made the fabric as heat-proof and flame-resistant as I possibly could-- which is certainly more than what's available in the human world, considering how much fire there is _everywhere_ in the Ghost Zone. You should have no problems using your powers while wearing this. Also, do this," she added while patting her hips indicatively. 

Camry mirrored the motion with her own gloved hands and gasped in shock. "Hidden pockets! Oh my gosh, you thought of _everything_ with this!" 

The body of her suit was jet black above the white waistband and sleeveless, exposing the entirety of her shoulder joints. To test out how it felt, she spun her arms in huge circles a couple of times and found that she didn't feel restricted at all by the material. Below the waistband, the skintight fabric faded from black to white in a gentle gradient, ending in bright white just above the top of her boots. For her outfit being a single piece, Camry had to admit that she really did like how it felt on her body.

Every part of her new suit under the seamless shirt also appeared to lose color like it had been absorbed by the silk itself-- something Dora had observed when she first saw the garment. "So, how do you feel, Camry?" she asked expectantly.

With a little ruffle of her blue hair, Camry gave herself one last glance in the mirror that hung on the partition and then rested a hand on her hip sassily. "Honestly? I feel like I could kick butt and take names. This is the coolest thing I've ever worn!"

~

An hour of celebrating later, Camry still had not changed into anything else because she could hardly bring herself to even peel off one of her new gloves. With cold, bubbly drinks in hand and pillows to lounge across in Dora's private study, Camry could only wonder if things could have been any better right then and there. No training, no worries-- just relaxing, laughing, and taking it easy for a day.

In fact... something about this didn't seem normal compared to the last few weeks. As the realization dawned on her, her eyebrows knit together and she sat up straighter in her seat, legs crossed with a deep purple pillow resting in her lap. What was left of her sparkling 'lime' water sloshed in its champagne glass without spilling.

"Uh, maybe it's just me being paranoid or something, but... is there something you're not telling me, Dora?"

Her question was like announcing the official order for a detonation. Madison shrunk into herself and occupied her mouth with taking a drawn-out sip of her own drink. Dora, in contrast, set her glass down and brought her legs out from under her rear so her bare feet touched the floor. Hands folded in her lap, she assumed an air of detached royalty in a mere second. 

"I... I'm a little surprised that you picked up on that, Camry," she began in a watery voice. "Though, maybe I shouldn't be... I talked to Pandora in private not long before we returned from that last round of training. She... She told me that your training was complete."

"Complete?" Camry echoed, raising a curious eyebrow. "I thought I still had a long way to go, though."

"There was never that much of a definitive 'finish line' for your training," Dora admitted softly. In the quiet tension of the room, it was impossible not to hear her. Not even the pillows dared to rustle. "We did have a goal, in a sense, of teaching you as many things as possible before your core developed, but... Pandora thinks you have done well enough now. She said it was time for you to leave the Ghost Zone and rejoin your friends."

"W-Wait, hang on a sec," Cam said as her glass's base made a sharp clinking sound against the coffee table's glass surface in front of her. "My 'friends?' You mean Danny and his friends? Why? I mean, sure, they helped me out a lot back then, but 'rejoin them?' I was just a burden to them. Why would I do that to them all over again?"

Sam's thinly-veiled threat echoed through her brain space, and Camry cringed at the idea of having to deal with more of that tension. Not only that, but how much worse would it be if she wasn't just some weird, invisible presence to the three of them anymore? She couldn't hide behind that anymore-- well, not realistically, anyway. She could still turn invisible whenever she wanted to, of course.

"It's as much of a mystery to you as it is to me," Dora admitted, her gaze lingering on her folded fingers pressed into her lap. "Something tells me Pandora knows what she is talking about, though. We have to admit: she has not steered you wrong yet, despite how you may feel about her."

A pout of clear dislike crossed the teen's face; that had to have been a reference to the maze. "So? There's a first time for everything..."

"Camry, do not speak of your mentor so negatively," Dora said quickly. "She only wants what is best for you. That's why... as much as it pains me to say it... I think she is most likely right about this. It's time you left the Ghost Zone and continued on your journey back to your real home."

She balked, sphalerite eyes wide with shock. "But I-- I'm _dead!_ I'm basically a ghost! What "real home" could I possibly go back to? My own world? I have no idea how to get there! It's _years_ away from now!"

'She's kicking me out. She's really throwing me out of her realm. Oh my god, why is she doing this? Did I do something wrong? What did I do? _Just give me another chance, I won't do it again_ \--'

A pair of hands fell heavily on Camry's shoulders, grounding and snapping her out of the swirling miasma of negative feedback. It was Madison, her twin braids still swinging from her quick lunge forward. "You did nothing wrong. You are not being thrown out, Camry. We both love you, and we don't want to see you go."

'Was I talking out loud?' she wondered in the back of her mind as she was folded into a warm, firm embrace. Madison cupped the back of Camry's head and held her there. "But what if there's a chance for you to find something better than here? You should take it."

Another body added itself to the mix, and a quietly crying Dora somehow managed to speak without sounding like she currently had tears making tracks down her cheeks. "You have no idea how much I loved being your teacher and your friend, Camry. I don't want to see you go at all."

Descending into a blubbering mess, she was glad she'd put her glass down prior to all this. "I-I just... Wh-What do I d-do-o after all thi-is?" she asked, her syllables stopping and starting in sync with her hiccups. 

"I don't know for sure," Dora answered, wrapping her arms around Camry's shoulders and planting a motherly peck into her short hair. "But I have no doubt you'll figure it out."

~~

Needless to say, their farewells were drawn out and saturated to capacity with tearful hugs and heartfelt gratitude. Camry made sure to say goodbye to everyone she knew in the castle, including Pavel and the cooks she had spent a little time with every now and then. Under the castle's portcullis stood three figures: Madison, Dora, and Camry with a few meaningful items stored in a small bag she gripped tightly in one gloved hand. It was made of a shiny fabric in a telltale shade of green; Camry suspected it was what had become of her torn 1920s dress.

"I just can't thank you enough for everything you've done for me," Camry said earnestly to Madison as they clutched each other's hands; her bag sat on the ground for the moment. "I don't know how I can ever repay you, honestly."

"You don't have to worry about any of that," Madison assured her gently. "Just find out what really happened to you, if you can, and find your friends. Focus on what _truly_ is important for the time being."

After one last hug between them, Camry retrieved her bag and turned to Dora, who touched her amulet before transforming into her fearsome, significantly scalier side. Cam used her tiles to climb up into the spot between Dora's spinal spikes and wings, and with one last look at the timeless realm that had been her home for a solid month, they took off into the Ghost Zone's sky-less void. As they flew, Dora's wingbeats dried the tear tracks on Camry's cheeks before they could even reach her chin. Maybe it was a coincidence, but it felt like Camry was being told that the time for tears was over. She wiped at them with the back of her hands and sucked in a deep breath, which she held in for a few seconds to quell her sparse hiccups.

They flew along in silence, with Camry holding tight to the spike in front of her and Dora keeping her gaze forward. It wasn't until a cramp had started to form in her thigh that Camry spoke up, hoping that Dora could hear her over the sound of the air rushing past their ears. "Dora..." 

"Yes?" she responded, albeit perhaps a little too quickly. She must have been eager for something to break the silence between them.

"I... I'm scared," Camry admitted, her grip on the dragon's back tightening. "What do I do next?"

Dora didn't answer her at first. In fact, her silence reached the point where Camry worried if she hadn't been heard at all. Then, finally, she said, "I wish I had an answer for you, Camry. But I do know that the world tends to work in mysterious ways, so perhaps it isn't worth the brainpower worrying over what will happen next. Maybe you just need to find a base point and work your way from there."

'A base point?' she thought first, then repeated that thought out loud. "What do you mean by that?"

"A base point could be a friend, an actual physical place, an idea... A dream... I just don't want you to think you _have_ to know what to do next. You will always be welcome in my realm, but I do want to see you succeed on your own out there, doing whatever it is you end up doing."

"What if my negative feedback makes me forget who I am, though?" The concern slipped out too fast for Camry to stop it. Dora's wings paused for a split second in their rhythm, which did not go unnoticed by the teen, but then got back into their normal pace. 

"Do you think you've been faced with enough negative feedback for that to happen?" 

"I dunno... Not with you, I guess..."

"Your core is very close to developing fully-- I can sense it deep within you. I have no doubt that you have been provided with enough positive feedback and good memories to think back on that you won't become something you're not, Camry." The way she said that made Cam want to believe it, too, but there was her anxiety again, whispering that it was all false. 

'I can't let myself think like that. Otherwise... I just might end up that way. I can do this. I can. I can! I just have to make sure I don't let the negativity get to me, and I'll be okay.'

"Thank you, Dora," Camry said sincerely, placing a warm hand on the scales of one of Dora's shoulder blades. "I remember you told me that you never wanted to see someone's feedback be manipulated ever again, so... I think you succeeded in that with me. I'm sure you're right-- I'll be okay. I just have to find a base point and work from there."

~

They said their goodbyes on the roof of a veritable skyscraper in downtown Amity Park, where all seemed impossibly peaceful from so high up. Dora made sure to fly down invisibly so as not to raise alarms about a dragon "attacking" the city. Briefly humanoid once more, she and Camry tearfully embraced one last time and thanked each other again. Each one of them had something to be grateful for, after all: Camry for being accepted, protected, and guided by a kind hand, and Dora for making a new, dear friend and being given the opportunity to do some good in the world. 

"Make sure you come to visit me and Madison sometime soon, alright?" Dora added as she and Camry pulled away from their final hug. "You will always be a welcome addition to the castle, and for as long as you'd like."

"That means so much to me, you have _no_ idea," Camry responded in earnest. "I'll try my hardest to get back to my own time, but I will try to come visit the next chance I get." 

"I should hope you do," Dora laughed. "And maybe when you come back we'll have caught up with the times after so many centuries."

"I can't _wait_ to see you in period-accurate clothes, Dora," she giggled. "You would look really adorable in a flower crown and high-waisted shorts, actually."

"Is that what people wear nowadays?" Dora's eyebrow had risen quizzically.

Camry grinned up at her. "Sometimes, when they want to feel cute."

She was about to say one more thing, and her lips were right in the middle of forming the first syllable when a sudden explosion rocked the air and made both women jump with fright. Their eyes darted around and landed on the source: a smoking crater in what looked like some sort of fancy exposition center. Something huge and _definitely_ mechanical crawled out on four spindly legs, tilted back its head, and cackled so loudly that it made the few unbroken windows of the expo building crack simultaneously.

Dora and Camry exchanged a glance that spurred the former into putting a hand on her student's shoulder. "This seems like as good a time as any for a dress rehearsal, don't you think?"

"Well... Only because Danny's bound to be here any second, and I need to talk to him," Camry admitted. 

"You've got this," Dora assured her, then held onto her amulet and transformed back into a enormous blue dragon. "Good luck, and I look forward to seeing you again." 

She launched into the air, shifting to invisibility only after she and Camry waved goodbye to each other for a full ten seconds. Then she was gone, and it was time for Camry to get going. Her silken shirt made a satisfying flicking sound in the chilly wind as she turned sharply toward the ghost wreaking havoc on the ground. Though her stomach twisted itself into painful knots of dread, she couldn't help the small smile gracing her lips. 'Maybe this will actually be kind of fun... My first field test.'

"Alright, ghost, whatever your name is--"

"I AM TECHNUS, AND YOU WILL ALL BOW DOWN BEFORE ME AS I STIFLE YOU WITH YOUR OWN DEPENDENCY ON TECHNOLOGY--"

"Oh-kay, _Technus_ , I think it's about time I introduced myself."

She paused for a second, and then let her shoulders slump with dejection. "Oh, man, that sounded so stupid from way up here when I'm just talking to myself!"

Suddenly the roof access door of the skyscraper opened, and a clearly armed security guard stepped out into the sunlight. "What're you doing up here? It's not safe, especially with that ghost on the loose! Come inside, and we'll bring you down into the shelters-- _what are you doing?_ " 

While he talked, he had moved forward at a brisk pace, intent on escorting Camry down to safety. The only reason he had yelled so suddenly was because she had jumped up onto the remarkably low railing that bordered the perimeter of the roof. She smiled calmly and gestured down toward the ghost, Technus, and the black-and-white shape that had finally appeared on the scene.

"I was thinking I'd go help my friend down there, if that's alright with you. Bye!"

On that note she jumped, disappearing from the guard's view completely. He ran toward the rail with horror in his eyes only to see the very same girl leaping from tile to glowing white tile, her arms out at her sides like she was simply balancing on the edge of a sidewalk. Baffled and unsure of what exactly he was looking at, the guard let out a low whistle of awe.

"What in the world...?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YES! AND SO IT BEGINS! I, BOOKIE, WRITER OF FANFICTIONS AND DESTROYER OF FEELS, HAVE-- wow, sorry, I totally need to calm down a little bit. 
> 
> I wrote this entire chapter in a day, you guys! I am so pumped up for what's going to happen next! Can you tell? I bet you can~ 
> 
> The next chapter is going to FINALLY get you some of the answers you've been waiting for, probably. Probably. We'll see where I end up stopping there. I won't leave you guys hanging for too much longer, though, I promise~ 
> 
> Please leave me a comment! I love reading them!


	24. Chapter 24

Just a few minutes earlier~

 

As it was a Saturday in the Amity Park Expo, the crowds had reached a pleasing enormity in the wake of the unveiling of a major technology company's latest software and operating system. Words like "revolutionary" and "innovative" were big selling points in the speech given by the attractive representatives sent to pitch the new product in all its advanced glory. "Computers, cell phones, and just about any and every other product from the technological surges forward in the past decade will be transformed in ways most people have only ever dreamed of. With this new operating system, which can be applied to cars, mobile devices-- even _kitchen appliances_ \--"

"Cars, blenders-- but what about ghosts?" a grating voice boomed over the speakers placed systematically around the presentation auditorium. The movie theater-sized screen behind the representatives flickered, glitched out, and went dark before the face of a certain technology ghost appeared, grinning madly with triumph. "After all, if you really want to reach all corners of your audience, let's not forget the ghosts. I am Technus, and I have taken over your operating systems and all that applies to them!"

From somewhere in the middle of the crowd, Danny, Tucker, and Sam groaned in obvious annoyance. "Man, for once I would just like to _enjoy_ my technology without Technus sticking his pointy nose into it," Tucker griped as his hold on his PDA tightened. Thankfully it wouldn't be affected by the new software because he had yet to download it-- an oversight he was now thankful for more than anything else.

"Can you really say you're surprised, though?" Sam pointed out.

Tucker sighed. "No..."

"C'mon, guys, let's just take care of this before it gets out of hand," Danny said seriously, his blue eyes darting every which way in search of a hiding place where he could "go ghost." They were hemmed in by the anxious crowds, however, and all had gone deathly quiet in the wake of Technus' announcement.

On the huge screen, he smiled a knowing smile and said in about the least intimidating voice ever, "Boo."

Chaos broke free! Everyone turned and rushed for the doors en masse only for most, but not all, to freeze when they caught sight of the appliances coming to life and blocking the way. A few stragglers barreled their way out of the building, their exodus fueled by little more than pure panic and fear, but others were not so lucky when faced with the vengeful UBlender or the various cell phones that spat lightning at anyone who got near enough. Screams filled the air, and above it all Technus cackled with obvious delight. 

"Tucker, find a way to hack into him!" Danny barked before running for an alcove that led to the men and women's restrooms. He practically had to shove panicked citizens out of the way, but there was nothing he could really do about that if he was to safely transform without his identity being revealed. He disappeared around the corner, where in the darkness a bright flash of light glowed. Then Danny Phantom was on the scene, flying over the crowd and toward the presentation screen.

"Well, if it isn't Mr. Pixels," he quipped, folding his arms over his chest. "You wanna call this off and come quietly before anyone gets hurt?"

"The only one getting hurt here will you be you, _ghost child!_ " Technus bellowed in response. 

Then the ground started to shake. The screen broke away from its rigging and rose up high into the air, supported by thick steel cables and hundreds upon hundreds of wires. Surrounded by a glowing green aura, a thick, round body followed it into view until it towered over Danny and the rest of the exposition-goers. All the displays zipped through the air toward the mecha-monster to join it, including the blender out for revenge. With nothing blocking the way anymore, everyone bee-lined for the doors in a desperate bid to escape the evil ghost. 

Four thin, shiny black legs finally broke through the floor, completing Danny's view of the amalgamation he would have to spend his afternoon fighting. It was so tall that the ceiling began to crack from Technus' head pressing up against it! Two circular slots in the sides of the cylindrical body opened up, and out of them popped two noodle-like arms with claw-machine hands at the ends. 

"On to bigger and better venues!" Technus yelled at the top of his lungs before taking aim at the front of the building, right above the door that people were still scrambling to get through. Danny's eyes widened as he realized what was about to happen, and he jumped-- well, _flew_ \-- into action, pushing on the side of Technus' mechanical arm to shift his aim up and to the left, further from the fleeing bystanders. 

The blast rocked the ground and blew a huge hole in the Expo, which filled with smoke and debris in an instant. Technus let out another irritating laugh and used his four spider-like legs to climb through the opening, where he cleared his throat and, to everyone's dismay, began a boastful announcement.

"I AM TECHNUS, AND YOU WILL ALL BOW DOWN BEFORE ME AS I STIFLE YOU WITH YOUR OWN DEPENDENCY ON TECHNOLOGY-- _AAH!_ "

Danny slammed into him from behind and pushed him flat on his flat-screen face, cutting off his monologue mid-sentence. He fired blast after blast of bright green energy as the automaton got to its feet and began firing back with the cannons in its palms. Now on the sidewalk, Tucker relied on Sam to guide him out while his nose was all but squished against the screen of his PDA. His thumbs darted rapidly to all corners of the screen, tapping out commands in the form of digital code. 

Now safely on the other side of the street from the expo center, he triumphantly held his arm out and aimed his PDA at the robot that Danny was keeping busy. He looked like a black-and-white bee buzzing around an angry bear that had been caught stealing honey from the hive. "Alright, this should do it. Buh-bye, Technus!"

His thumb pressed 'send.'

And nothing happened.

"What?" he yelled, bringing down his device and staring at the screen. "That should have frozen everything up!"

"Keep trying!" Danny called down to him before deciding to try his own brand of 'freezing everything up.' Rays of light blue light formed ice crystals in the joints of the automaton only for the cold to be negated when Technus simply moved. He was too huge to freeze all at once! 

"So, what's the master plan this time?" he asked of his monologue-prone enemy as he circled around the gargantuan killer robot. 

"I thought I already told you, child," Technus answered calmly, one of his arms shooting out to try and latch onto the nimble Danny. He missed, and Danny swerved out of the way by performing a graceful loop-de-loop around the claw hand. "The humans have played themselves right into my hands! Their dependency on technology will be their downfall when it turns on them at my command!"

"Well, they did make a lot of movies about that," a new, distinctly feminine voice spoke up from Sam and Tucker's left. They jumped and turned in sync to stare at the newcomer: a girl with short blue hair and a mostly monochromatic jumpsuit. She sat on a weird, white square that hovered a few feet above the ground, which put her at eye-level with both Sam and Tucker. 

"Camry?" Tucker yelped, eyes wide behind his glasses.

"Where did _you_ come from?" Sam asked quickly. 

"Hi, guys," Camry replied with a shy little wave. "Should I, uh, try to help him out up there? Or does he have it?"

"Well..." Tucker drawled as he peered up at his superhero friend, who was currently caught by the back of his suit and was being thrown around like a rag doll. "What we _really_ need is a way to shut him down. But I can't seem to find the chink in his armor since he got ahold of that new software!"

"New software?" Camry echoed, frowning as she pulled out her phone and powered it up. Yep, the battery had yet to go down at all since her entire ordeal with ghosts had begun. "I wonder if I still have that file saved to my notes..."

" _Tu--cker--hurry--up!_ " Danny yelled at the top of his lungs as he was whipped back and forth like Willow Smith's hair. Technus let go suddenly and sent Danny Phantom flying, but don't worry; the brick wall stopped him from flying too far. All three teens on the ground flinched at the sound of him hitting the bricks, but he was back in the air as soon as he shook of his dizziness. Camry's eyes tracked his route back into Technus' face, and a sickening feeling twisted her stomach into knots. 

"Tucker, can you get me Technus' phone number?" she asked urgently, holding out her futuristic smartphone toward him. "I've got an idea, but I need that if it's gonna work."

"Psh," he snorted, accepting the handheld and tapping out a quick command. His eyes widened once more behind their frames at the unfamiliar technology at his fingertips, and for a split second he considered digging through it to learn the secrets of what made the future so incredibly different. Danny's yelling of his name yet again snapped him out of that thought immediately, and he managed to use both his PDA and Camry's phone to tune into a signal coming from one of the cell phones that made up Technus' new killer body. (Emphasis on _killer_.)

"Here, I think this should be good to go," he said, handing back Camry's phone. "What're you gonna do?"

She rose to her feet and hopped down to the ground without faltering once in her mission to copy one of the files in her notes app. Then she navigated to her messages and made a new one out to the most recent addition to her contacts. 

**From: (3687) 8461...  
Message: GET REKT**

Technus hesitated in his attacking Danny as he opened the text. "What? Who sent this? What does R-E-K-T mean?"

Then she dropped the bomb on him, and with hardly a sound every part of Technus went dark. His robot slumped, then toppled into the street altogether and lay there like a pile of scrap metal. Danny could only stare as he flew down and alighted on the street, next to the flat-screen monitor. "You did it! Way to go, Tuck--!" 

The words froze on his tongue when he spun around and saw that Sam and Tucker weren't alone. Camry stood there as well, phone in hand and a timid smile on her face. She raised a gloved hand and waved to him the same way she had to his two best friends. Clearly not expecting to see her there, he mirrored the action and raised an eyebrow. "What're you doing here? I thought you were staying with Dora."

"Okay, what _exactly_ did you just do?" Tucker interrupted quickly. By the look on his face, he was all but _dying_ to know her secret. "How'd you know it would take him down?"

"It's just a bunch of gibberish," she answered, showing him the texts she had sent. "There was this prank going around last spring where people would send this to their friends. The text would shut off their phones and force them to reboot. It got old _really_ quick, but now I'm really glad I didn't get rid of the file."

"You have _got_ to send me that," Tucker insisted. 

"Are you okay?" Sam asked Danny while the other two chatted about her phone and the prank. Her hand found his shoulder, and he patted it reassuringly. 

"I'm fine, Sam. Thanks. Now we just gotta figure out how to deal with Señor Monologue over here." For emphasis, he planted a solid kick against the monitor's edge and was satisfied to hear a cracking sound. 

The green aura around the robot flared brighter suddenly and lasted for a split second, then congealed above the face-down monitor and solidified into the distinct shape of Technus 2.0. With a hand on his forehead and by the way he staggered a little in the air, he certainly was more than just a little bit disoriented. 

"Uugh... What was _in_ that?" he groaned. Too bad for him, but he never got an answer. A beam of blue-white light shot out of the Thermos in Danny's hands and sucked Technus inside; he let out an offended screech the entire time he was pulled in, and was cut off when Danny secured the cap on the end. 

"And that's the end of that," he sighed gratefully. "But seriously." He turned to look Camry head-on. "What're you doing here? Are you just visiting?"

"Uh, no...Dora and Pandora thought my training was over, so they sorta... told me it was time to leave the Ghost Zone," Camry admitted in a somber voice. The hand that held her bag by the drawstrings moved to rest against her upper arm in a closed-off pose. Somehow, Danny got the feeling it wasn't a happy topic of conversation.

"You finished your training? That's awesome!" he cheered. "Was it hard?"

" _Unbelievably_ hard," was her sincere reply. "Oh my god, you wouldn't _believe_ what I had to go through! There was this maze filled with basically _every_ creature in Greek mythology, and I swear I ran into all of them eventually. I had to get through the whole thing in one go, so I was basically in there for more a whole day. Like, literally, a full 24-plus hours."

" _Wow_." Tucker's response to that was a low whistle, and Sam crossed her arms over her chest in thought. Maybe it would be a good idea to read up on that particular subject, just in case any of their group had to face something similar at some point... 

"But whatever, I mean, it's over," Camry said with a shrug. "I'm kinda glad I found you guys, though."

"Well, it's not like it's hard when there's almost always a ghost attacking," Danny said, proudly puffing his chest out a little. It made the D logo stand out.

"True. I wanted to talk to you about something, actually," she continued, looking at each of them in turn.

She would have opened her mouth to ask the question she had been practicing over and over in her head on her trip out of the Ghost Zone, but she never got the chance to. Thundering footsteps filled the street, and all too quickly a mob of reporters had encircled the four teens, two of which were their main targets at the moment. Microphones were pushed into Danny's face especially, but a handful found their way in front of Camry as well. 

"Did you have a difficult time battling that ghost, Mr. Phantom?"

"What are your thoughts on the current status of our citizens' overall safety?"

"Do you have a crime-fighting partner now? What's your name?"

"What? She's not my--" Danny tried to say, but was cut off by even more questions from the eager reporters. Camry shrank back until her shoulder bumped into Danny's arm. 

Everything pressed in on her, multiplying exponentially until it seemed she would never draw another breath again. She tried to at least deny any sort of partnership between herself and Danny, but only a choked squeak came out when she parted her lips. 'There's a _reason_ Mom never takes me to stuff like this!' she couldn't help but think. 

"We have reports of a girl with blue hair jumping off the downtown skyscraper and walking on white squares in midair! Will you confirm or deny whether that was you, Miss?"

Because she knew he was near, Camry had no trouble in latching onto the sleeve of Danny's jumpsuit and saying just loud enough for him to hear, "I-I think it's time to go."

"Yeah, I think you're right," he agreed before looping a thin arm around her middle and launching effortlessly into the air, turning themselves invisible while the crowd below gaped in awe-- well, a few were more disappointed than anything else. After all, it must not be easy to get the chance to ask the infamous Danny Phantom direct questions.

Up in the air, Camry's chest heaved with exertion; anyone who saw her could have guessed she had just run a marathon. "Oh, gosh... I _hate_ reporters." 

"Going down," was all Danny said in answer as he swooped back down, still unseen, and somehow managed to scoop up Tucker and Sam as well. They yelped in surprise at suddenly being pulled into the air, but they were turned invisible as well and dragged to a nearby rooftop for all three passengers to be unceremoniously dropped. Danny willingly fell onto his rear and changed back, breathing hard after carrying three people all at once. "And _that's_ why we don't stick around after a battle."

"Sorry..." Camry murmured sheepishly, taking a chance in looking down at the crowd, which was now dispersing with little left to report on. "That was definitely my fault."

"No biggie," Tucker said easily, reclining with his palms on the ground behind him as support. "I'm just sad they didn't ask _me_ any questions." 

"Did you actually jump off a skyscraper like that reporter said?" Sam asked. So, she had heard that. Maybe it hadn't been hard to.

Camry balked for a second at the question and quickly tried to play it off coolly. "Well, I mean, when the-- you know-- Okay, yes, I did kinda jump off the skyscraper. But the _only_ reason they know about that was because a guard tried to stop me. I was just trying to get down from where Dora dropped me off, I swear."

There was no way her cheeks weren't cherry red, and she knew it, much to her mortification. Danny snickered to himself, which succeeded in making her blush deepen-- maybe it even turned a little orange thanks to her core. "What's the big deal about it? I do stuff like that sometimes, too, just for the heck of it. Superheroes can kinda do that pretty much whenever they want, y'know."

There it was again: a subtle insinuation that Camry was some sort of hero. She had to shake her head at that, even though a bashful, tiny smile still spread across her face. "Well, I'm not exactly a superhero, I'll have you know."

It could have been her words that made it happen, but that idea seemed absolutely ludicrous. Camry couldn't stop time... could she? All too suddenly, the air felt different, like it had thickened in the span of a split second. The buzzing background hum of the city froze in its tracks, leaving a strange imaginary pressure on her eardrums. "Huh?" 

The most obviously telling factor in all of this was how Danny, Sam, and Tucker most definitely weren't moving anymore. Camry reached for her bag, her fingers somehow finding their way to her camera, and held onto her Polaroid for dear life. All of this looked just like a photograph, frozen in time the way she was perfectly accustomed to. But this? This was entirely new, and strange, and _wrong_.

She made the mistake of blinking, because as soon as she opened her eyes again the world had changed. Suddenly she saw clocks, exposed gears turning to power unseen devices, and, through the tall and narrow windows, an all-too-familiar void of swirling shades of green. 

'The... Ghost Zone?' 

Her new surroundings were shrouded in shadow that made shivers run up and down her spine. Something told her that eyes were watching her-- dozens of pairs, like wolves circling around their prey. A fox, or a rabbit...

" _Or a moussse_."

Camry gasped and clutched her head at the intruding, hissing voice stabbing through her brain. She didn't look up when Tucker let out a wordless yell of surprise, or when the other three got to their feet and looked around curiously. Something was wrong, and it was coming from _inside_ of her. 

"Why are we in Clockwork's tower?" Sam exclaimed, spinning circles to take in all there was to see.

"Not only that, but how did we get here?" Danny chimed in, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Camry? What's the matter?" Tucker asked, concern softening his voice and inviting her to answer. Camry only shook her head and sucked in a sharp breath through her grit teeth. 

_Mouse... mouse... moussse..._

"She's been carrying a little too much extra baggage lately." 

This new person sounded older, and wiser than anyone Camry had ever met in her life-- well, except maybe her dance instructor, but that was a whole other story. All three pairs of eyes that weren't clenched shut in pain darted to a place behind where Camry sat with her knees drawn up to her chin. There was no time to react before he reached a hand down and placed it flat between Camry's shoulder blades. 

Its presence was a new, chilling sensation that she stiffened apprehensively under. Then the cold spread sharply, sinking into her skin and then drawing away, having taken away more than it had given her. She felt weak in the knees, eyes wide with uncertainty, and distantly felt her hands drop from her ears to rest on the ground at her sides. One of her legs slid until it was more or less straight out in front of her. Someone was talking at first, but then everything went dead quiet. 

"Oh, no, no, _no_ ," Tucker said quickly, waving his hands in front of him as if that would ward off whatever had upset him. "No snakes, _no thank you!_ Not in a million years! Goodbye, see you guys at home!"

"Tuck, wait," Danny sighed. "Clockwork, what's going on? What... What did you just _do_ to her?"

"And why couldn't we find you for so long?" Sam piped up. 

Someone's hand grabbed hers, and Camry felt herself standing and walking away from where she'd been sitting. "Let's _not_ be near the snake." Tucker? What snake?

"Wh-What're you... talking about?" she asked him dopily, leaning on his shoulder because the world wouldn't stop spinning and her ears just _wouldn't. Stop. Ringing_. "What snake?"

"The, uh... one that he just pulled out of nowhere."

Thankfully, Tucker gestured toward whoever 'he' was, and it helped Camry focus on what exactly was going on. There stood a ghost in a dark purple cowl and cape; a glass slot in his torso revealed the pendulum and face of a grandfather clock. He carried a staff with another clock situated at the top, and a dark, jagged scar ran down the left side of his face and over that eye. 

Perhaps what was most intriguing, however, was the writhing black snake struggling to free itself from his grip. It hissed and spat, but even upon first glance Camry could see that it was disintegrating into sparkling dust particles and smoke before their very eyes. Something about the sight of it set off every alarm bell in her anxious mind, and she sucked in another sharp breath. 

Her house, dark and in the middle of the night. 

The oven, making a racket in the otherwise stillness.

Glowing green light, washing over her and yet not showing up on camera.

A hissing voice. 

A wall of heat slamming into her face.

Her back hitting the counter.

Scales covering muscle, slithering over her legs.

" _Moussse_..."

The memory echoed through her skull at the exact same time she made eye contact with the dying snake and it hissed out the very same thing. It sent a pang through her heart and made her stomach lurch in disgust. 

Clockwork's grip tightened around the wriggling creature to finish it off. The dust blew away in an undetectable breeze, leaving the four teens shocked and obviously confused. No one said anything for what could have been an eternity in the ghost's timeless tower. 

"I know you all have a lot of questions, and I will do my best to answer them without stepping over my boundaries," he said, finally breaking the silence. "Please, follow me."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's time to break out the confetti cannons and sparkling cider because CLOCKWORK HAS MADE IT ONTO THE SCENE, PEOPLE!
> 
> alSO I WROTE THIS IN THE SPAN OF ONE DAY RIGHT AFTER WRITING ANOTHER CHAPTER IN ITS ENTIRETY ON THE PREVIOUS DAY SO I'M A LITTLE WORN OUT NOW CAN YOU TELL???
> 
> Wow, okay, that's enough yelling. Please leave a comment with your theories about what he's going to tell them in the next chapter, and I'll try to tell you how accurate you are without giving everything away (if I can). See you later~!


	25. Chapter 25

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  **Trigger warning** : blatant Islamophobia, bullying, blood, and violence all appear in a particular scene in this chapter. If this is something you're not comfortable reading, let me know and I'll try to sum it up as cleanly as I can for you.
> 
> Everyone yells at each other a lot in this chapter... You'll see what I mean soon.
> 
> RECAP:
> 
> Clockwork's grip tightened around the wriggling creature to finish it off. The dust blew away in an undetectable breeze, leaving the four teens shocked and obviously confused. No one said anything for what could have been an eternity in the ghost's timeless tower.
> 
> "I know you all have a lot of questions, and I will do my best to answer them without stepping over my boundaries," he said, finally breaking the silence. "Please, follow me."

For a few seconds, nobody budged an inch. Nothing made sense: how had they gotten into the Ghost Zone in the first place? Why had Clockwork stayed so elusive this entire time? What was the significance of that snake he'd just pulled out of nowhere? Why did it disintegrate?

Then, in an out-of-character brave step forward, Camry broke the silence. "That snake... had been inside me, hadn't it."

All four pairs of eyes in the room landed on her, three being significantly wider with bewilderment and confusion. Clockwork, on the other hand, simply nodded. "It was amplifying your negative feedback in the hopes that it could manipulate you with greater ease."

"Somehow..." She paused, clenching one hand into a fist and holding it against her sternum. "I feel like I knew that, in the back of my head somewhere. A snake did this to me. I remember now."

"You remember what happened to you?" Danny gasped. " _When?_ "

"Removing the parasite also removed its hold on her memories," Clockwork explained, his tone gravely serious. He extended his arm, the one gripping his staff, toward a huge clock face suspended in thin air. The hands and numbers on it disappeared to reveal a swirling green void that closely resembled the "sky" outside of his tower.

A dark scene illuminated by a green glow lit up the "screen," revealing a short figure creeping into the kitchen and holding a Polaroid camera in both hands. Though the shadows distorted her features a little, it was undoubtedly Camry. The real one, who had managed to stand up straight on her own, unconsciously held her breath in at the sight. She knew this moment all too well; why did she have to experience it so many more times?

Her hand rested on the oven door's handle all over again, and there was that wall of green flame followed by the enormous, ever-growing body of her assailant. With his enormous head and unhinging jaw, he could have easily swallowed her whole. She didn't technically have a heart anymore, but something akin to a pulse picked up in her ears and thundered through to her fingertips. It was coming, coming to get her, and she couldn't do anything except stand there and stare, on the verge of terrified tears!

The vision of her past ended with a bright flash of white light just as the snake was about to clamp its jaws around her. That rotating green returned to the clock face, and Clockwork turned back around to assess the teens' reactions. Stiff-jointed and shivering, Camry certainly had had the worst in reliving her trauma. The other three were at varying levels of shock, surprise, and, especially in Tucker's case, unease. 

"And now, with your memories finally unlocked, we can know what really happened to you," Clockwork stated. 

She took a shaky step forward then, her fist still pressed against her chest to ground her. "Why couldn't we find you for so long? If you know all the answers, why didn't you let us talk to you?"

"The reason for that is a bit too lengthy to explain right now," was his answer.

"You're the ghost of time," Sam pointed out peevishly, her arms folded over her front. "I'm sure you could make some room for it."

"Yeah, we were searching for you for _days_ ," Tucker chimed in indignantly. 

He sighed then, and waved toward another clock face. This time, he and Pandora were the center of attention. Pandora waltzed in regally, her head held high so her entire posture commanded authority. "Clockwork, I'm glad I found you. I've been asked--"

"--to talk to me on behalf of a spirette," he interrupted without turning to look at the goddess. "Yes, I am aware, Pandora. That is why I must tell you it is very important that you do not tell her you found me."

"... There is something bigger going on that you can't talk about, isn't there," she guessed, hitting the nail on the head. Too many millennia spent with the ghost who controls time had taught her not to question his motives too extensively. 

Clockwork nodded. "I do want you to train her, though. Sending her into the maze must be the first trial you give her." 

"The maze?" Pandora echoed, her eyebrows rising. "Are you certain that isn't too much to start out with?"

Camry couldn't help but stare as the past played out before her. 'It wasn't Pandora's idea to send me into the maze after all? I got mad at her for nothing...

'Which means I _really_ should be mad at _Clockwork_ for all of that.'

And yet, for some reason, she couldn't bring herself to get riled up. Maybe it was because she had worked out that aggression in the arena, or maybe she just wasn't angry about it anymore. It had been where she'd gotten her silk shirt, after all, so it certainly hadn't been for nothing.

"That's the maze you were talking about earlier?" Tucker whispered to her as he leaned in closer, and she looked at him on her left before nodding silently. "Yikes..."

"I'll let you know when it's time for her training to be over as well," the Clockwork onscreen added.

"So, you expect me to train her without knowing when she will be done with it all?" Pandora asked accusingly. 

"I do. Don't worry about how far she gets, only that she learns the basics at the very least."

The memory ended. Camry let out a tired sigh. "You told her just a little while ago that my training was over, even though she didn't think it was, either. I _did_ realize something was off about all of this." 

"But that doesn't explain how she's here if she's from the future," Sam stepped in to put them back on track in getting the answers they were looking for.

That made the tiniest of smirks pull up one corner of Clockwork's mouth, if only for a brief moment. "That's because she isn't."

" _What?_ " all three teens living in their right world exclaimed in perfect unison before turning to stare at Camry, who felt her cheeks flare up in an immediate response to their eyes on her. 

"But she's got tech I've never even _heard of!_ " Tucker continued. "How is she _not_ from the future?" 

"Maybe I should let Camry explain that herself. After all, I'm certain she's realized it by now," Clockwork said, gesturing with a gloved hand to the shy blonde girl. 

"W-Well, I mean... I kinda realized it a little while ago, and I dunno if I'm even remotely right or not, but... I don't think this is even the right dimension," she said while looking down at her toes the entire time. "Everything's too different, even for being a few years in the past."

"You're from another _dimension?_ " Danny yelped, flabbergasted. "Is that even possible?"

"It is. Your human world and her human world are on separate planes of existence and connected by one common bridge dimension: the Ghost Zone." Clockwork had been all too casual about dropping that truth bomb on the four of them.

"Wait-- _what?_ "

"Connected by the _Ghost Zone?_ "

"Whoa..."

" _Mind. Blown_."

"And as the ghost who watches over time, I pulled her through to the other human world at the moment of her spirit being spliced from her body by the ghost that attacked her."

By the way this encounter was going, all four of them were going to need surgery to remove their eyebrows from their hairlines and allow their eyelids to close ever again. Camry's voice came out in a stutter, though that was honestly nothing new. "S-So, you... _You brought me here?_ Why?"

"In order for you to fulfill the prophecy of yourself."

Well, that was cryptic as all get-out. "Uh... What?"

"On the rooftop, just before I brought the four of you here, you denied the idea of being a hero. And yet, think of how you got that scar on your cheek. It would seem you've forgotten what happened on that day." He waved his staff again, and the first clock face lit up with a view of a sunny day behind a brick school building. "Allow me to remind you."

The breath caught in Camry's throat as she recognized that place. How could she ever forget it? 

"Uh, no, I remember perfectly, thanks. You _really_ don't have to remind me, Clockwork."

Her nervous words seemed to have fallen on deaf ears, because he simply turned toward the view and watched the scene unfold. A dark-skinned girl, no older than ten or eleven, was surrounded by a group of three other boys. They looked older, though not by much, and leaned over her intimidatingly. A knot in Camry's chest tightened at the sight of the little girl's terrified face bordered by the edges of a brand new hijab.

"Clockwork, _okay_. I get it. I saved my best friend from a group of bullies. You can turn it off now."

He didn't respond, and her eyebrows knit together in both confusion and brewing anger. Why wasn't he _listening_ to her? Why didn't he get the message that she didn't want the others to see this? 

One of the boys grabbed Saoirse's hijab and pulled, grabbing hair along with it and making her scream. His buddies laughed haughtily, and one made the comment, "I wonder if she actually went bald under there and she's just trying to hide it."

"Let's find out," said the one still pulling. She beat her fists against his arm, crying and begging him to let her go, to leave her alone, to stop pulling on her hair and hijab. 

It was those pleas that summoned a newcomer onto the scene: a tiny girl of the same age, with light blonde hair almost down to her lower back and decorated with a big pink bow at the back of her head. She froze, iolite-colored eyes wide with shock as she took in the picture of her best friend being hurt by the three older boys. Her hands gripped the straps of her backpack for a split second before throwing off the bag and sprinting forward as fast as her feet could carry her. " _Hey! Leave her **alone!**_ "

Ten-year-old Camry managed to land a solid punch into the nearest boy's jaw when they looked up to see her charging at them. He went down, moaning and clutching his face, only for the third boy to grab her arm and pin her against the wall from behind. 

"What do you think _you_ can do, huh?" he yelled, putting his hand over the bow and grinding her face into the wall. "You're both just a bunch of _nerds_ , and _sissies!_ And my dad says that people like you should just go away forever!"

"Clockwork, _please_ , just turn it off. I don't want other people to see this."

Now, being a bit of an old building in need of some upkeep, this particular outer wall was a little splintered, looking worse for wear. Some of the painted bricks needed to be replaced because of how they'd broken, and a number of jagged pieces stuck out of the wall dangerously. Young Camry tried to peel her face off of the wall and turn her head, but with how the boy pushed her down she only succeeded in squishing her right cheek firmly against the bricks. 

Young Saoirse scrambled to her feet and tried to reach for Camry, but the boy who'd been pulling her hair grabbed her by the back of her hijab and threw her onto the ground. The headscarf slipped out of place then; a sharp tearing sound split the air, and Camry saw red.

Well, _both_ Camries saw red. 

" _Clockwork!_ Turn it _off!_ " 

Needless to say, Camry's obvious discomfort had Danny, Tucker, and Sam questioning whether they should be seeing any of this taking place. When she darted forward, Camry's tiles appeared under her feet and elevated her a few inches off the ground without her consciously commanding them to. All Clockwork did was step a little to his right, which allowed her a perfectly unhindered view of the memory.

Except it wasn't _just_ a memory. What she didn't know was that it was also a portal.

"Camry, _wait!_ " Danny called out, rushing after her but acting too late to get close. Her fist was raised in an effort to smash the "glass" of the clock face. "That's not--"

Vision tinged with bright hot anger, her fist pierced through the edge of the portal with no resistance slowing her down. The fact that she didn't make any physical contact with her target threw her off balance and caused her to topple through the portal, completely vanishing from view. Danny froze in front of it and whirled on Clockwork. "Why didn't you stop her?" he demanded to know.

"Just watch, and you'll see," was all the answer he received.

Onscreen, Saoirse was kicked in the ribs and Camry struggled fiercely against her captor. He snickered at his obvious advantage over her and pushed her harder into the wall. She slid to the left under the pressure, and her cheek grazed against a sharp bit of brick jutting out from the wall. She screamed, then went limp against the wall, her eyes shut tight against the pain.

The boy she'd punched could only stare at the blood quickly welling up in the triangular gash, and Saoirse gasped in horror at the sight of her best friend bleeding. The poor girl's bright pink tourmaline eyes filled with tears, but they didn't fall yet. Camry's shoulders stiffened, and her eyes flashed open.

In the shadow cast by the taller boy pinning her down, her eyes glowed an unnatural shade of red-orange.

Sphalerite. 

Her teeth grit together fiercely, and with one heel she stomped down as hard as possible on the instep of her attacker. He squealed and let go, staggering back on his one good foot. As soon as she was free, Young Camry overshadowed by Teenager Camry whirled around and delivered a solid karate chop to his throat with the side of her hand, temporarily cutting off his air flow and knocking him to the ground. He dropped like dead weight, gasping for breath.

"Wait-- is that _her?_ " Tucker exclaimed, pointing an index finger at the ten-year-old kicking some major butt. 

The other two boys gaped for a total of three seconds before they glanced at each other, silently asking if they were going to back each other up against the unassuming girl. She had stepped over the boy she'd already downed and was stalking toward them, fury written all over her bleeding face. With the blood smeared across her cheek and the way her sphalerite eyes were aflame with malice, she could have easily been a demon of revenge at that very moment. 

They put up their dukes, obviously scared of her now, but caught sight of something behind her and immediately bolted. An older voice belonging to a man called out angrily, demanding to know what was going on over there. Boy number two tried to get up, but the teacher had reached him by then and grabbed ahold of his upper arm before he could escape. "Harlow, what are you doing? _What_ is going on?" 

"I remember this," Camry whispered under her breath. Her eyes closed suddenly and she staggered, putting a hand up to her head as if it pained her. She would have fallen over had Saoirse not risen to her feet and grabbed her arm to steady her. With the edge of her torn hijab, she dabbed at the cut on Camry's face gently and failed to hold back her tears; whether they were of fear, of relief, or of pain from her injuries was uncertain.

When her eyes opened again, they were their regular iolite, and she looked around in complete bewilderment. She clapped a hand to her throbbing cheek and covered Saoirse's fingers unexpectedly; their eyes met, and Saoirse asked quietly if she was okay. Camry only stared back, taking note of the tear tracks that made her best friend's freckles harder to see.

"Girls, what happened?" the teacher asked. He must have caught on to how the boy-- Harlow-- was guilty of something by how he'd tried to twist free of his captor's grip, but the kid wasn't going anywhere if he had anything to say about it. "Are you alright?" 

Saoirse pulled her hand down a little, revealing the cut on Camry's cheek and the blood staining her hijab. The teacher gasped and rushed over, taking Camry's face into his hands to get a better look. "That looks bad. We need to get you to the nurse."

"They kicked her, though!" Young Camry insisted, drawing back from the teacher and grabbing Saoirse's hand. "And they pulled on her hair! She's hurt, too!"

Clockwork nodded to himself and reached into the portal with one hand, fishing around for a few seconds at most. When he retrieved his hand, a girl with blue hair was attached to the end of it by the back of her transparent over-shirt. Her eyes were impossibly round, and instinctively she clapped a gloved hand to her own long-since healed cheek.

"That... What." Her voice was dull, perhaps from shock. "What? _What?_ "

"In order to fulfill the prophecy that is yourself," Clockwork repeated, setting her feet back down on the floor of the clock tower. "You don't remember exactly how you beat those boys back because you hadn't done it yourself yet."

"But I... Wh-- How did I... _do_ that?"

"It's called 'overshadowing' people," Danny explained in his best attempt to bring some semblance of normalcy to the atmosphere. With his two friends clearly stunned by what they'd just witnessed, it was up to him to at least _try_. "It's something ghosts can do."

"I... 'overshadowed' my younger self?" Camry asked, using air quotes around the unfamiliar term. For some reason, no one had mentioned that particular ability to her before.

"Then this means that... all of this was _meant_ to happen?" Tucker realized in a low tone that quickly gained volume. "If you had to save yourself when you were older, but you couldn't do that unless you went back time, then you _had_ to come here!"

"This is _rapidly_ approaching _Doctor Who_ levels of complexity," Sam murmured to herself. 

"Oh my god," Camry whispered. "Oh my god, you're right. _Holy_ \-- Oh my _god_. I don't even know how to process this.

"But then... Can't you just send me to my own world through one of these portal things if you can _clearly_ see into my world?" she continued, facing Clockwork directly. 

"I have control over time, but not very much over space. Specific points in a timeline allow for breaches to happen, such as that specific part of your childhood," he explained while holding his staff at his side. "But it isn't within my power to simply send you back to your own dimension."

"Then what can I do?" Camry asked insistently, squaring her shoulders and looking Clockwork straight in the eye. Despite the obvious height difference between the two of them, she still managed to look at least a little intimidating. "Don't tell me there isn't _something_."

Clockwork clearly wasn't fazed. "You can find the ghost who does have the power to reach the other dimension."

"Wait, who is that?" Sam asked, an eyebrow raised. "I don't think I know any ghosts with powers like that."

"That's where you are mistaken. Camry, can you think of any strange or inexplicable things that have happened around your city?" he asked.

She put a hand on her chin in thought. "Well... I mean, weird stuff does happen from time to time, I guess. Like sometimes people go missing around the graveyard outside of town, and I know there are green flashes of light in the woods every now and then. But... Oh, _oh!_ There was that one time a whole bunch of people just showed up out of nowhere a few years ago!" She slammed her fist into her palm when the epiphany struck. "They were all guys, and they just appeared outside of the city! But then I guess the government stepped in and blocked people from learning more-- and whyyy are you looking at me like that?" 

That particular question had been directed at Sam, who was staring at Camry with wide eyes and a hand covering her open mouth. It was almost impossible not to see the gears turning in her head. "I know who you're talking about. That's Kitty!" 

" _Kitty?_ " Danny echoed, an eyebrow raised in disbelief. "Wait, how do you know this? What're you talking about?"

"Yeah, what _are_ you talking about?" Tucker chimed in.

Because he'd spoken, Camry's eyes were drawn to look at Tucker, and this time it was her turn for the wheels in her brain to spin. She couldn't suppress a little shriek that startled everyone except Clockwork. "I _saw you_ on the news! You were _there!_ " 

" _What?_ "

" _What?_ "

"You did?" Sam gasped. "So you really _do_ live in the same dimension Kitty sends people to with her kiss!"

"I don't think words can really express just how confused I am right now," Danny commented as he looked between both girls with intrigue. "You're saying Kitty can send people to other dimensions, and she sent Tucker there once?"

"Why don't I remember any of that, then?" Tucker wondered aloud. 

"And why didn't you mention this _before_ , Sam?"

She awkwardly scratched the back of her neck and tried to laugh it off. "Uh, well, it was kinda fun to keep it a secret between me and Jazz, so we just... kinda... didn't tell you guys. I mean, c'mon, we and your mom handled it just fine while you were fishing with your dad, so it wasn't that big a deal to begin with."

"I _definitely_ want to hear this story now," Danny said. Tucker nodded fervently as well.

"Sure, sure, but only after we figure all this other stuff out," she compromised with a wave of her hand. "First we have to find her and get her to send Camry back."

"And to do that, you are going to need this," Clockwork spoke up. It was strange how he had stayed so silent throughout this part of the conversation, so his voice brought the room's undivided attention onto him instantly. A small cardboard box was in his hands-- seemingly having come out of nowhere-- and he held it out to Camry, who accepted it with a curious expression on her face. She grimaced under the unexpectedly heavy weight and set it down quickly to tear off the tape sealing it shut. 

Danny, Sam, and Tucker migrated over to look down into it as well. 

"Uh...?"

"What is all _that_ for?"

"I fail to see how this is going to help us in any way."

"Well, clearly you don't have any artistic vision, my friend," Camry said boastfully as she beamed down into the box. "Because I think I know _exactly_ what to do with this."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hahahaaa vague ending is vaaague~ You're welcome! 
> 
> Can you tell I've been writing this chapter before going to bed for the past few nights? I'll bet you can. Ugh, it feels rushed to me. Oh well, too lazy to do too much hardcore editing. 
> 
> Please leave a comment (or multiple if you wish) telling me how blown your mind was after reading this! I've been planning that flashback scene for MONTHS and I am SO GLAD I finally got to the point where I could write it out for real. 
> 
> Okay, see you in the next chapter~!


	26. Chapter 26

Maybe it's a little strange to look at something mundane and realize exactly how much you miss home, but it was the familiarity and sense of normalcy wafting out of the box that had Camry realizing the back of her eyes were prickling with heat that was unrelated to her core. She smiled and pushed down the urge to cry before reaching in and pulling out a small, 15 milliliter bottle that glimmered ever so softly in the dim light cast by the portal faces in the tower.

" _Nail polish?_ " Tucker asked, disbelief obvious in his tone. 

"But why is it in a storage box...?" Cam muttered, too softly to expect any sort of reply from the others around her. They didn't offer a hypothesis, and the topic floated away on the nonexistent breeze. "Ugh, and they totally ruined my system for arranging these. Hang on, this is going to bug me until I fix it."

She began by drawing them all out two or three at a time, then carefully ordered them in straight lines on the floor of the clock tower. Each type of polish had its own row, and within each row they formed a rainbow of color schemes. Little did the other three teens know, but this was exactly what the doctor ordered: focusing on a simple task that would eventually get rid of a source of unease was the perfect solution for calming her tumultuous brain. After all, it had been blown at least three times in the span of roughly fifteen minutes, and that was more than plenty for someone _without_ a mild anxiety disorder. 

"Wait, why do you have so many of these?" Danny asked as he picked up a glittery bottle and held it up to his eye. The bright yellow polish reflected rainbow in the right light, though that specific angle wasn't readily available in the dim green world of the Ghost Zone. "Who even _needs_ this many?"

" _I_ do," Camry answered shortly, looking irked at how he had put a hole in her holographic lineup. She glanced over and noticed the name of the polish printed on the bottom and couldn't help but snicker a little too loudly at the irony. 

"What's so funny?" he asked, setting it down where he'd found it. 

"No, no, it's insensitive," she replied, waving her hand flippantly. Heat flared up in her cheeks again, but it was duller than it used to be. Maybe that was a sign that she was slowly growing more at ease around him.

"Oh, come on, you can say it," he assured her. Now Tucker and Sam were intrigued as well, so there was little Camry could do to play it off.

"Uh, it's just... You got shocked by that portal in your parents' basement when you became half-ghost, right?"

Danny nodded slowly, unsure of where this was going.

Camry picked up the same bottle and showed him the label, which read in a fancy script, ' _Electrified_.' "I had to laugh 'cause it's from the High Voltage collection..."

Instead of looking offended or hurt, as she'd feared, Danny snorted before reaching for a few more bottles in the same row. He squinted at the labels and then showed her the bottom of a teal-colored bottle from that collection. "Well then, if that one's me, this one's you."

It read ' _Splice_ ' in that same ornate font. Camry did that thing where a little puff of air escaped through her nose when she tried to hold in a laugh, but it turned into silent giggles that only lasted a couple of seconds. "Oh, man, that's so perfect. I should wear this one next, just 'cause of that."

"How is _nail polish_ going to convince Kitty to help you, though?" Sam wondered with an air of condescension to her tone and body language as she held up a bottle of deep purple polish curiously. 

"You'd be surprised how convincing a good manicure can be," Camry answered, for once looking confident and in her element without any probing from others. "I've gotten my mom to say yes to letting me out of stupid functions by doing her nails a handful of times."

Was that reference to the night of the 1920s dance, where Sam had been unable to escape a charity auction hosted by her parents? The idea had Sam grumbling silently to herself.

"Was that a pun?" Tucker asked knowingly, a smirk on his face as he picked up a sheet of what looked like stickers, some of which had been peeled up and were missing. 

"Maybe," Camry grinned. "But as for exactly how this is gonna happen, I can't say for sure. We'll have to go find her first and-- don't bend my vinyls, please."

He gave back the "sticker" sheet and watched as she packed everything away neatly, putting the dozens of bottles and countless tools back in the storage box. It looked fairly new, certainly on its first ever use, but the question as to why it was packed away for storage in the first place still stood. 

"You shouldn't waste time," Clockwork advised the four of them from where he floated a few paces away. Much to her shock, when Camry looked up at him she didn't see a young adult but a wizened man with a long, scraggly white beard and a haggard appearance. "You don't have very much of it left."

Coming from the ghost who controls time, that was scary to hear. They all got to their feet quickly and turned to leave, but near the entrance Camry turned back to look at him. With a small smile on her lips, she gave Clockwork a shallow bow of gratitude since her hands were full of nail supplies. "Thanks for saving me, in a way, Clockwork."

His answer was a wave goodbye, and she pivoted to leap up onto her tiles and rejoin the other three. Sam and Tucker held onto Danny's arms as he flew, and Camry ran alongside, easily balancing the box now that she had adrenaline flowing through her veins. 

"So, where to first?" she asked breathlessly. 

~

An hour later~

"Wandering aimlessly is starting to feel _really_ familiar," Tucker groaned, a cheek cupped in his palm as he dully looked out at the Ghost Zone monotonously flying by. "Is this going to become a regular thing, guys?"

"I _really_ hope not," Danny sighed.

They collectively agreed it wouldn't hurt to take a little rest, which is exactly why they alighted on a floating plateau of purple rock not unlike the one where Danny had first left Camry in the Ghost Zone so many weeks ago. Even ghosts and spirettes had their limits; Cam quickly set down the box and stretched her sore, protesting muscles. It had gotten harder and harder to keep up over time while also carrying her precious hobby cargo on top of all her other things stored in the drawstring bag slung onto her back. 

"You don't think she and Johnny are in the human world again, do you?" Sam wondered suddenly as the epiphany struck.

The idea had Danny grimacing. "Knowing how much they both love to stir up trouble there, it wouldn't surprise me. Let's head toward my parents' portal for now and see if we run into them along the way."

"Do you really think we'll be able to convince her to help me?" Camry asked the three of them timidly. One fist was pressed into its habitual place against her sternum while she rubbed that thumb up and down the length of her forefinger, kneading the fabric of her blue-grey gloves. "I mean, how hard do you guys think it'll be?"

"It's hard to say," Danny answered, pursing his lips in thought while looking up contemplatively. "She's not like Skulker, who we both know is about as hard-headed as they come--" That pulled a slight chuckle from Camry when she remembered throwing him back and forth across the garden, "--but I don't like Johnny at all, and he _really_ doesn't like me."

"So we're going to expect old emotions resurfacing," she assumed with a thoughtful finger placed over the length of her lips while her chin was cupped by her hand. She used her other hand to open the folded flaps of the box again and peer inside as if inspiration and answers were ripe for the picking in the shadowed container. 

A round bottle with a pointed white cap was lifted out, and Camry held it up to her eye out of curiosity. The liquid inside was clear and reflected the world upside-down. She kept it there and turned around, away from the others, to look out at the Ghost Zone. 'The 'Zone would look so cool if it was submerged in water...' The random thought tickled the back of her brain. 

"What... are you doing?" Danny asked, baffled at her actions if his tone was anything to go by. 

"I dunno..." was Camry's languid response. "It's weird, but... I kinda have this feeling in my gut. Just gimme a second."

She stayed like that, squinting out at the world through the clear polish until the muscles around her eyes ached. Though Sam, Danny, and Tucker clearly didn't have any faith in whatever obscure thing she was trying to accomplish with looking through the bottle, no one moved or said anything to stop her.

A minute passed them by, and finally Sam let out an exasperated sigh. "What are we waiting for, exactly? We still need to search through the Ghost Zone, in case you all forgot."

"Wait, wait-- nobody breathe," Camry hissed sharply, going as still as stone. There it was: that faint purring sound she'd barely caught near the end of Sam's complaint. Was that an engine? Whatever it was, it was _definitely_ getting closer. For a brief second Camry feared it was Skulker, but she brushed the worry aside with the memory of hauling his metallic rear back and forth across Dora's garden-- and while wearing heels, no less. 

"Oh, no," Danny groaned. He had run to the edge of the cliff and was peering out into the distance, where a cloud of purple dust slowly grew larger over a narrow bridge of floating land. "Don't tell me it's _Johnny_." 

"Isn't that good, though?" Tucker pointed out. "He'd know where Kitty is."

"Are the two of them dating or something?" Camry inquired, joining them at the ledge. The rocky path Johnny was speeding down on his motorcycle curved and made loop-de-loops in the air, eventually passing underneath the very plateau the four teens were standing on.

"Yeah, and always fighting," Danny supplied with a grimace. Something told her that he'd had more than enough experience with that particular situation. 

"Hmm..." Cam hummed, pressing a finger to her chin. Her brow furrowed, and before she could second guess herself she tossed the clear bottle back into the box and backed away from the precipice. "Okay, I have an idea. Whatever you do, don't let Johnny know you're all here. Something tells me this won't work if he gets worked up."

"What're you gonna do?" Sam asked her quickly.

Camry's answer was a noncommittal shrug with her palms held out at her sides. Then, fists clenched tight and strength gathered in her legs, she dashed toward the cliff's edge and pushed off the corner, breaking off chips of rock in the process. Almost as soon as she was "flying," she was falling, but her aim had been true: the path was just barely within her reach. After slowing down with the aid of a few tiles, she alighted on the road and stood smack dab in the center, waiting for Johnny to come tearing over the hill.

And tear he did some three seconds later, his bike's motor steadily increasing in volume as time passed. Camry steeled her nerves and put on a stern, brave face. With her stance wide and her arms thrown straight out at her sides, she completely blocked the center half of the road. 

The rider balked at the "obstacle" and slammed on the breaks, squealing to a halt that kicked even more dust up into the air. The cloud drifted forward and covered them both entirely, but not before Camry and Johnny each managed to get a good look at the other. 'So, this is Johnny' Camry thought dully. With the dark jacket, fingerless gloves, and unkempt blond hair, he really was digging into the look of a troubled biker with eyes only for the open road.

"What the heck're you _doin_ ', kid?" he peevishly demanded to know without getting up from his seat. "You tryin'a die twice?"

"You're Johnny, right?" Camry asked, shirking his questions. 

"What's it to ya?" he spat, leaning forward with his arms crossed along the handlebars. 

"I'm looking for someone called Kitty; they said you were the person to talk to." If the situation hadn't called for a calm composure, Camry certainly would not have been able to keep up the act as well as she had so far. Even as she talked evenly, her stomach churned and twisted itself into sickening knots deep inside.

Johnny scoffed and rolled his bright green eyes. "Dunno who told you, but I don't like getting bothered by brats like you, kid. And as for Kitty, she an' I 're havin' a little... lovers' quarrel. She probably flew off to whine to Ember or Spectra about me, like she _always_ does."

"Oh, no," Camry groaned, letting her head loll back in exasperation. 

"Hey, why haven't I seen you around here before?" he asked suddenly with a clearly curious look in his eye. "Seems like I would'a heard about a newbie as young as you."

"I... don't get out much," was Camry's lame excuse of an answer. "But it's super urgent that I find Kitty, so can you _please_ just point me in the right direction?"

Johnny huffed out an annoyed sigh and jabbed a thumb over his shoulder, back toward where he'd come from. "How should _I_ know, huh? We're givin' each other some space, which means _I_ am getting _away_ from her."

"... Okay, that actually does kind of help," Camry said with a glance in that direction. "Thanks, Johnny. Oh, and I'm Camry, by the way. Sorry for getting in your way!"

Then she was off, waving goodbye for a brief second before jumping from tile to tile until she was back on the plateau. Johnny's engine revved loudly and he zoomed away, gradually fading into the distance. 

"Are you _crazy?_ " Tucker exclaimed when Camry alighted on the cliff's edge once again. "First you jump off a skyscraper, and now you stand in front of a motorcycle speeding down the road!"

"Well, I am starting to get a little desperate to find this girl, so there is that," she remarked calmly. "But hey, now we kinda have a lead. Let's get going."

~

"Ugh! I can't _believe_ him!"

Fuming, with palpable rage rolling off her in waves, Kitty fired another bright ray of energy at a floating rock and hit it directly. The poor stone was obliterated in an instant and scattered into sand particles to be carried off on the wind. She whirled on another and another, systematically filling the air with ash and smoke and debris. 

As the minutes ticked by and her targets gradually lessened, those little pricks of heat grew more and more insistent at the back of her eyes. Finally, she dropped onto her rear at the cliff's edge and folded her arms over the top of her knees to bury her face in them. The tears didn't fall, but Kitty could feel them welling up and threatening to spill.

"Uhm... H-Hi there."

Kitty sucked in a startled breath and raised her head. Who was talking to her? She'd never heard that voice before.

An athletic girl with short blue hair and a scar on her right cheek nervously smiled at her, a faint blush reddening her complexion. She had a cardboard box in her hands; by the way she was straining to hold it up, it must have been heavy. 

Kitty tried to disguise a wet sniff with a weak cough. "What do _you_ want?"

The girl flinched at her harsh tone and fell silent, staring down into her box. Then a look of determination passed over her face and she met Kitty's eyes straight on. "I've been looking for you, Kitty, because I need your help with something _really_ important."

"Well, I don't know if you can _tell_ , but I'm _not_ really in the mood for being generous right now," she snapped in answer to that heartfelt plea. "And what makes you think I would help someone I've never met before?"

"I-I think I've got something that might interest you, though," the girl stated as firmly as she could, which wasn't saying much when her fear of strangers had a grip on her lungs. 

"And what would _that_ be?" the older ghost asked in a tired, clearly skeptical tone as she rested her cheek in her palm. 

The girl reached into her box and drew out a bottle of sparkly nail polish. "I was thinking I could do your nails? And... maybe you wouldn't mind someone to talk to about what's bothering you. I mean, there probably aren't that many other girl ghosts that close to your age, right?" 

Kitty narrowed her eyes at her. "You want to do my nails? That's... not what I was expecting at all. It's been a while since I got a real manicure... But are you _really_ good enough to do _my_ nails?" 

"I've got things you've never even dreamed of," she assured Kitty, her confidence growing into her niche. "And I know you and your boyfriend got into a fight."

" _Agh!_ " Kitty groaned loudly. Her clenched fists smoked dangerously, hinting at the anger boiling inside of her. " _Who told you?_ "

"W-Word travels fast in the Ghost Zone!" the blue-haired girl said quickly. "But I'd be willing to listen if you want to get it all off your chest."

Silence passed between them, though it was filled with Kitty taking small glances between the box, the bottle in her hand, and the younger girl's earnest face. Finally, just when Camry's stomach began to fall in anticipation of a final rebuff, Kitty sighed and got to her feet.

"What's your name, kid?" she asked, adjusting the purple scarf hanging around the back of her neck.

She positively _beamed_ at Kitty in reply. "I'm Camry. You can call me that, or Cam; I don't care which one."

"Nice... to meet you, Cam," Kitty said. "I sure hope you're prepared to really blow my mind, because I'm not easily impressed."

~~

"... Okay, that is _so_ cool," Kitty had to admit as Camry slicked on the last layer of top coat. Her nails had been tended to, shaped, nurtured with oils-- all before the real nail art ever began. After a gradual, vampy gradient from red to black, holographic pink heart stamps for accents on her ring fingers, and an extra layer of top coat to make sure the manicure lasted long, she was finally done and feeling confident. "Show me how you did that again!"

"Sure," Camry giggled before getting into the procedure of stamping. Her wrist-length gloves had been removed and set aside as she didn't want to get any polish on them, but now she pulled them carefully with the job done successfully. 

"Where did you _get_ this stuff?" Kitty asked, using the pads of her fingers to leaf through Camry's wallet of stamping plates. 

"Over the Internet, mostly," she supplied cheerfully. "But I doubt you'd be able to find it in _that_ human dimension." For added emphasis, she jabbed a thumb over her shoulder in a vague direction meant to indicate the human world where Danny, Tucker, and Sam lived.

"There's no Internet in the Ghost Zone..." Kitty remarked softly. Her brow furrowed. "Wait, then _how_ did you get this stuff?"

"See, that's... what I need your help with," Camry admitted, her gaze drifting to the silicone mat that had caught all of the mess she made with the nail supplies. "You've got this power that sends people to another place, right?"

"My Kiss?" The perplexed look on the green-haired ghost's face said that this particular topic had really come out of left field for her. "What about it?"

"I need you to do that to me," Camry explained, using her hands to gesture as she talked. "I know it probably sounds really crazy, but I'm apparently _from_ that dimension that you send people to. And, the thing is... I've been searching for a way back, but I think you're the only chance I have to get there."

"Wait, but... but that only works on men!" Kitty said quickly. "It wouldn't work on you, even if I tried."

"What?" Camry gasped, her sphalerite eyes wide with dread. "But... But Clockwork said it was-- well, maybe he mostly _implied_ it would work. Oh, come _on_ , Clockwork! I can't keep running around like a chicken with my head cut off!"

Kitty raised an eyebrow at that but chose not to comment. "Well... If Clockwork said it, then maybe there's a way it _can_ work on girls. I dunno for sure, though. Don't quote me on that." 

"Would you maybe come with me to see him, then?" Camry asked with hope shining in her eyes. 

"I guess, but only 'cause now I'm curious about this. I've always wanted to know where my Kiss sends people. You mean it's a whole other world?"

Camry nodded as she packed up her supplies and folded the lid flaps down securely. "Yeah, I live there. Er--! I guess I should say I used to live there, before I kinda sorta died, in a sense."

Kitty smiled wryly at that and gingerly clapped a hand on Camry's shoulder. "Welcome to the afterlife, kid. Oh, but real quick, lemme take care of something."

Then she spun on her heel and threw a bright blue blast of fire at an island that had been hovering nearby for quite a while. Her attack splintered a section, which crumbled and fell into the abyss of the Ghost Zone's void, and forced three figures to scatter into the air.

"Hey, what's that for?" Tucker yelled with an obvious lack of appreciation. 

"Oh, it's just _you_ three," Kitty sighed, bored. "What's up? Spying on us or something?"

"No, no, they're with me," Camry spoke up quickly. "Really, there's no need for fireballs."

"You're friends with them?" The sidelong glance Kitty shot her said that she wasn't impressed, even a little saddened by such news. "Huh."

"And, I mean, well... I dunno if they're gonna want to stick around for so long, 'cause they don't really have to if they don't _want_ to, but I think they're gonna go with us to Clockwork, too. Fair warning."

"You can quit talking about us like we're not even here any time now," Sam said peevishly from where she floated in midair. 

Kitty tapped a newly made-up nail against her purple-painted lips in thought. "Well, if you're gonna make me put up with their company--"

"Again, we're right here!"

"-- then I dunno if _just_ a manicure and a rant is gonna cover it."

A sinking sensation churned in Camry's gut, bringing nausea along with it at the fact that she had been _so close_ to finding a way home again. Like before, her gaze landed on the top of her box, but then it dawned on her. With both arms stretched straight out, she held the box toward Kitty and genuinely smiled.

"Then you can have this, if you want it."

Kitty balked, staring with wide eyes at the new girl. "I-I was kidding, seriously--!"

"I mean it. Take it. Really," Camry insisted. "I already showed you how to use everything inside, after all."

A small smile stretched across her face, and she accepted the gift with both hands. "If you're sure, then... Okay. Let's go get this over with."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WOOHOO OH MAN ALL THE PIECES ARE COMING TOGETHER AAAAAAAAAAAAAH
> 
> As a side note, I also own all the nail polish that was specifically mentioned in this chapter: Splice and Electrified, and that round bottle with the pointed white cap is a fast-drying top coat I need to replace because I use it so much ^_^' Those three are all from Superchic Lacquer, so if you're interested then I highly recommend their holographic nail polish! They've got a website and everything (since you can't buy their polishes anywhere except online).
> 
> Thank you for reading~ Please leave a comment and kudos if you like this so far!


	27. Chapter 27

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> RECAP:
> 
> A small smile stretched across her face, and she accepted the gift with both hands. "If you're sure, then... Okay. Let's go get this over with."

"No more games, Clockwork. I want to know directly: is there or is there not a way for me to get back home?"

The force of Camry's words silenced the room to the point that even the ticking of turning gears seemed to soften. Without turning around from where he hovered with his back to the group of five, Clockwork shifted from an old man to a young child. Then he spoke.

"Why are you so eager to get back to that dimension?"

"Wha--? _'Why?'_ Because--" And she stopped, any possible answers fading on her tongue. Visions of Dude running out of his home crying and Saoirse's entire family being cornered by ghostly snakes danced through her head. 

Camry squared her shoulders, her face set in stone with determination. "Because my friends are in trouble, and who knows who else might be after what I've seen."

"Then allow me to explain what I did not cover when you were last here," he said, finally looking at her-- at them all. His childish youth disappeared only to be replaced with the countenance of a young man in his prime; it was the appearance she had grown used to during their first encounter. Some small, unnoticed part of her brain wondered why he hadn't changed at all during that decent chunk of time.

"You are a spirette, meaning your core has not developed to its fullest capacity. While there is not a large window of opportunity left, there is still a chance for you to successfully return to the way you were before Crom spliced your spirit from your body." 

"There is?" she yelped, her eyes the size of saucers at the unexpected news. The dawning hope darkened into dread as another part of that statement finally registered. "Wait... Crom? Y-You don't mean Crom... Cruach, right?"

"The one and the same." Clockwork's face held the same indifferent expression he always seemed to wear, though it seemed to carry undertones of pity at that moment. "Now, to returning to your body. If you can find a way to recreate the most important circumstances during which your soul and body were separated, and then reunite with your body, you will be cleaved back together. How you accomplish that depends on you."

"Does she go _totally_ back to normal, though?" Sam piped up suddenly, drawing the room's attention to herself. "Or does she become a half-ghost, like Danny?"

Camry and Danny exchanged uncertain glances at the idea that evolved into shock when Clockwork confirmed, "With her core developed as far as it has, there is virtually no way to reverse it. She will be a hybrid, just as Daniel is."

"Whoa!" he exclaimed. "Another half-ghost? _Finally_ , someone who won't attack me from the get-go!" A celebratory fist pump punctuated the end of his cheer.

"Well, as long as I can at least be mostly alive," Camry allowed with a soft, hopeful smile gracing her features. "So that means I have to get back to my own dimension and find my body first. But Kitty says her Kiss doesn't work on girls! How is this going to work?"

Clockwork's crimson gaze landed on the Polaroid camera hanging around Camry's neck. "You have the answer right there." 

"My Polaroid?" she wondered, lifting it up curiously without taking off the neck strap.

"So, what you're _saying_ is," Kitty drawled, "if she takes a picture of herself, and I blow a Kiss at the _picture_... it won't matter that she's a girl?"

"That is the only way it can happen," he said.

"I want to go, too!"

He had remained quiet throughout the entire conversation, so his outburst startled everyone except Clockwork into staring right at him in disbelief. Tucker stood firm, his resolve as unwavering as the decisive look on his face. 

"Are you _serious?_ " Danny gasped. 

"You _do_ know my Kiss can keep you from ever coming back, right?" Kitty reminded him. By the way she examined her painted nails and looked as unattached as could be, she clearly didn't have much of a preference whether her warning came true or not.

"Guys, this could be my _only_ chance to check out stuff from the future," he began earnestly, glancing between everyone in the tower rapidly. 

"Except I'm not from the future," Camry murmured under her breath.

"And I don't remember anything about supposedly going there the last time, so this could be a whole new experience. Just think about it! I mean, yeah, we've used the Infimap to travel through time and space before, but this is something _totally_ different!"

"It... _would_ be kind of cool," Sam admitted slowly as she folded her arms over her chest. "And the bragging rights afterwards would be off the charts."

Danny looked between his two best friends carefully, his acid-green eyes churning with deep thought. He let out a sigh and asked, "You both think this is a good idea?"

"Only if there's a way to make sure we don't get stuck there forever," Sam answered.

"Is there a way for that to not happen?" Camry asked Clockwork. Though she had yet to admit it out loud, the idea of bringing her three new friends along and showing them her own world had shaken up the butterflies nestled in her stomach. 

"As long as they come back before twelve hours are up, they won't be gone for good," Kitty supplied. "So are we doing this, or what? I'm getting bored."

"What do you think, Camry?" Danny asked her solemnly. "It's your dimension, after all."

"Well... There's no way I'm gonna stop you guys from coming along if that's what you really want to do. And, now that I think about it... I don't think I can fight Crom on my own if he tries to stop me from getting my body back. He's the one who did this to me, so he's gotta have a reason why, right? I guess what I'm trying to say is: yeah. I think I'd like it if you guys came with me."

"Then it's settled!" Tucker cheered with both fists in the air. "Let's do this!"

Under Camry's direction, the trio gathered together to pose for a picture that she snapped with her Polaroid. The photo printed out underneath the lens, and she shook it out to help the image clarify on the paper. Then it was her turn, and under the lens' eye she couldn't help the deep flush of embarrassment that took over her face. Danny took the picture quickly and gave back her camera, which went around her neck in its usual place.

When they were all ready, both photos were put in Kitty's hands so she could work her 'magic.' Before she could pucker up, however, Clockwork had one last thing to say.

"While it is true that this dimension is not technically a "future," there is still a distortion in the passage of time between this world and the next. It will take longer there for twelve hours to pass here, so you will have more time than that when you reach the other dimension."

"Oh, awesome," Tucker commented. 'More time to play with all the cool gadgets~'

"Thanks for everything, Clockwork," Camry said as sincerely as she could muster. "And thanks again, Kitty, for agreeing to help. You don't know how much it means to me."

"Sure, sure," she answered flippantly. "Are you all ready to get this over with?"

Four decisive nods later, Kitty slid the picture of Danny, Sam, and Tucker in front of the other and placed the tips of her fingers on her puckered lips. The first Kiss was blown, and the instant it touched the picture all three teens disappeared in a flash of light the same color as Kitty's pale blue fire. 

Then it was Camry's turn. 

Warmth enveloped her body in an unfamiliar way; it was too bright, too sharp, and she found herself spinning out of control in a free fall to nowhere. As soon as she was blinded, the light disappeared to be replaced with a dull darkness that seeped into all the crevices of her brain and urged her to lie still.

Tucker's POV~ 

At first, I was only aware of how my head felt like it had been split in two with a cleaver. Time passed, and slowly I realized that I was bathed in some sort of hazy, milky half-light that seemed to distort reality itself around me. I sat up in gradual increments and kept a palm pressed against my left temple while my right was busy holding my PDA up as a makeshift flashlight. The way the weak light from the screen couldn't cut through the air made it clear I had landed in some sort of thick fog bank.

'Oh, that's right: Kitty sent us to Camry's dimension. But then where are the others?'

"Hello?" I called out while rising to my feet. I'd landed half on grass, half on a gravel walkway, though thankfully my head had been spared the rocks. For some immensely foreboding reason, all of this felt strangely familiar.

"That's impossible... I don't remember anything about this world," I muttered with a firm shake of my head.

But that wasn't as important as finding where I was, or where the rest of my team had gone. "I hope they're okay..."

A faint glow caught my eye, though it was hard to gauge just how far away it came from with all the fog between me and it. "Hello? Danny, is that you?"

No reply. ' _Great_.'

I started toward it against my better judgment and immediately ran into a rock that reached my waist and had a smooth, rounded top; my stomach got all too familiar with its surface while I was bent in half over it. "Oof--! Ow, what the--?"

Wait. There were bumps on this rock. Specific bumps. Almost like... letters...

I leaped back, both hands held in the air as if to say I had not just been feeling up somebody's gravestone. "Oh, man, you've gotta be kidding me! I'm in a graveyard? Perfect, as if ghost-hunting wasn't spooky enough!"

That odd glow flared up brighter all of a sudden, then extinguished completely, but not before I managed to get a rough estimate of where the other gravestones were by way of the shadows they cast. With my precious PDA in a pocket and both hands outstretched, I inched toward the source cautiously, wishing for a Thermos or a blaster more than anything else.

Well, maybe a snack wouldn't hurt, too...

"Hello?" I was really starting to sound like a broken record. "Is anybody there?"

A low moan echoed through the fog and made my skin crawl. Every instinct was telling me to run, to escape before it got me, but then a new noise rose up from the same place a few feet to my left.

"Ugh... Wha...? Why's it so dark...?"

"Camry?" I asked, hopeful for even a barely familiar face. "Is that you?"

"Tucker?" she replied, and I heard a gentle rustling sound followed by more confused noises. "Ow-- what am I lying on? Tucker, where are you?"

My hand shot to my pocket and whipped out my PDA. "Can you see the light?"

"Uh... I can't really see anything in all this fog."

"Here, hold on a sec." I slowly pivoted, becoming the human equivalent of a lighthouse, and Camry gasped.

"I see you! Walk over this way, like, eight steps."

Somehow, I managed to reach her without doubling over any more headstones and crouched down beside her. She fumbled around for her phone and switched it on, and then looked to be fiddling with something onscreen. Suddenly a bright beam of light sliced through the fog and right into my eyes while she peered out at our surroundings.

"S-Sorry!" Camry yelped. I felt her hand rest on my arm out of concern while I rubbed at my eyes.

"Owww... Your phone has a flashlight in it?"

I guess she hadn't been expecting a tech question because she fumbled around with her answer for a bit. "U-Uh, wait-- are you-- errr, yeah. Yeah, it does. Just for moments like these, I guess. Are your eyes okay? I'm so sorry about that."

"They're fine," I grumbled. "Not like there's anything to look at around here anyway."

"Well... Maybe there is, actually." Illuminated eerily by her phone's light, Camry held up a wilted bouquet of flowers wrapped in soggy black paper. Similar items were piled up around her, including cards and what may have been little offerings of food at one point. "Where are we? Why was I lying on these things?"

"We're in a graveyard," I explained, still blinking to clear the spots from my eyes. "And I would know because I just became far too acquainted with a poor dead guy's headstone. You're probably sitting on a grave right now."

It was weird to see her recoil when our source of light was so focused and held in her hands, partly because she almost disappeared behind the beam and partly because the light swung wildly toward the sky with her jerky movements. It quickly landed on the marker of the grave beneath her-- only it wasn't a grave. A cross-shaped stake, painted white, had been driven into the soft ground to serve as a memorial site. The flowers and trinkets must have been left for whoever's name was written in black, stenciled letters on the marker.

I had only managed to make out the first couple of letters when Camry suddenly gasped and took away our light source. For some reason, her breaths sounded ragged. "Hey, I was using that. Bring the light back."

"N-No, I-- but-- wait--" she stuttered, and I heard her scooting backwards on her butt.

"Cam, what's the matter?" I asked quickly, and looked over my shoulder at her. It wasn't easy to tell, but the look in her eyes could have probably been fear.

"B-But I'm not-- I mean, I _am_ , but--" she insisted under her breath.

"Camry? Hey, snap out of it," I called out to her. "What's going on?"

"You don't think this is a grave, do you?" Camry fretted, and by the light from her phone I could see that she was shaking. "Is my body buried? What if I have to dig it up? I can't do that, I can't--!"

" _Camry!_ " 

She jolted into sitting up ramrod straight and angled the light to bounce near my face so we could make eye contact. "This isn't a _grave_ grave. Look, the grass is still intact, and this isn't a proper headstone. It's just a wooden stake. And why would your body be buried here, anyway?" 

Slowly, she crawled back up to the memorial and shined her phone on the name. I had to squint, but the dark letters contrasting with the dirtied white background helped.

"Camirelle... Lidya-re... Dowell," I murmured. "Wait-- _Camirelle?_ Is this _you?_ "

"It's pronounced 'Li-dee-AIR,'" she corrected me in a small voice.

"... Your first name isn't Camry?" One of my eyebrows rose up at her. "It's 'Camirelle?'"

"Yeah," she sighed. "Camry and Cam are just nicknames I prefer to go by. But that's not really the point here! Why would I have a memorial set up in my honor? I-I haven't been gone _that_ long... have I?"

"I have no idea," I replied patiently, "but maybe if we get out of here, we'll figure that out. We gotta find Danny and Sam, too."

"Right," she agreed. "And fight Crom. And find my parents, and my friends, and my friends' parents--"

"One step at a time, okay?" I interrupted shortly. "C'mon, let's find our way outta here, pronto."

I could barely see her nod because of how the light was aimed, but all of a sudden it dimmed and her phone screen winked out with an urgent "Dead battery, please recharge" message that also disappeared in a few seconds.

"Oh, no. No, no, _no!_ " Camry yelled as she held it up and smacked its side, as if that would coax it into working again. "Please, not _now!_ "

"Oh, great. _Now_ how're we gonna get out of here?" I griped with an eyeroll that really only ever benefited me, in retrospect. 

I heard her hum to herself for a moment. "Well... If we're in a fog bank, it's gotta be kinda low to the ground, right? So I'll just walk up on my tiles until I can see where we need to go."

"Good idea," I said, and sat back to wait. Camry got to her feet and stood still, much to my confusion. 

"Wait. Why aren't they appearing?" she whispered, putting her hands out and gesturing sharply with them. Though it was hard, I could just barely see that the motion pushed some of the damp fog into swirling around her hand. "Nothing's happening!"

"Did you forget how to do it?" I asked slowly.

"No!" Cam answered sharply. "Maybe I can light our way back with fire, then."

A few seconds passed, and still nothing happened. A clod of muddy grass flew up into the air with a frustrated kick from Camry's boot. "I can't get my powers to work!"

"I wonder if teleporting shorted them out for a while," I murmured with a hand on my chin. Then I was on my feet and holding up my PDA to be our makeshift flashlight for the time being. "Come on. It looks like we're gonna have to do this the old-fashioned way."

"That sounds awful coming from you," she sighed, clearly dejected by her tone.

"What's _that_ supposed to mean?" I asked with a hand on my hip.

"You're the tech guy in your group, right?" she pointed out. "Shouldn't that sound terrible to you?"

I grimaced. "It does. _Especially_ Again, one step at a time."

~

Omniscient POV~

By the time they were barely any closer to escaping the clutches of the fog, their clothes were inevitably soaked with mist and kept them both shivering in the frigid night air. On multiple occasions, Tucker heard her mutter how 'weird' it was for 'summer nights to be this cold,' but he chose not to comment. It wasn't until she sucked in a sharp breath and stopped walking altogether that Tucker spoke up. "Hey, why'd you stop? We might lose track of each other if we don't stick--"

"Don't take another step!" she interrupted quickly while reaching a warning hand out toward him. He froze automatically with his arms wrapped around himself for warmth.

"And we're not moving _because_...?"

"It's cold, and we're in a fog-- unless it's actually a _cloud_ , and we're on a floating acre!" she exclaimed. "We don't know where the edge is! I can't use my tiles, so if we fall, that's it. _Splat!_ "

"A floating _what now?_ " he asked. "You're talking nonsense."

"I am not!" she insisted. "I thought, back in your dimension, that maybe we just weren't in an area where there were any of them, but judging from your reaction I guess maybe that's not the case. Y'know those floating places in the Ghost Zone? We have those here in my dimension, too."

From behind his glasses, Tucker's green eyes narrowed in suspicion. "You... have floating bits of land in your world."

"Yes."

"That's... a normal thing for you?"

" _Yes_."

Somehow, his eyes narrowed even further. "If you're pulling my leg here, I'm not gonna be happy about it."

"I _swear_ I'm not," she said with an emphatic gesture. "This is me being _absolutely_ serious. We should stop where we are and wait for the sun to come up so we can see where we are."

"And freeze to death?" Tucker rebutted. "We've gotta keep warm by moving, and who knows when it's gonna be daybreak."

"Well, I'm already dead, so we can check that off the list," Camry answered with the utmost casual tone possible that she could have used to say something so morbid. Nothing about that statement would have sounded out of place if she had been commenting on the weather. "So unless we wanna have more ghosts around here, we have to stay put."

"Floating rocks are for the Ghost Zone," Tucker scoffed. "Next you're gonna tell me you have, like, three moons in the sky or something."

By the moonlight cutting through the last traces of the edge of the fog, he could see the completely honest expression on her face. "We have seven, actually."

"Come on, be serious!" he snorted. 

She wasn't laughing.

"Wait... you're _serious?_ "

"As death," was her response, with folded arms and a cocked hip. "Maybe if the fog burns off a little, we'll be able to see them before the sun rises. Welcome to my world, _literally_."

Tucker's upcoming sarcastic remark about her use of the overused phrase died in his throat when a low growl, muffled ever so slightly by the mist, rumbled in their bones and caused both teens to do their best imitations of statues.

" _Please_ tell me that was your stomach," Tucker whispered.

"I was just about to ask _you_ that," was her anxious, hushed reply.

Grass rustled, made slick by dew, and that growl was repeated, louder this time. Both Camry and Tucker made wide eye contact for a split second before they said what they were both thinking at the exact same time.

" _Run_."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ba-BAM! WOOHOO! They are in her dimension, and it's nothing like you were expecting! *rubbing hands together like an evil villain* 
> 
> And yes, I have left you on a cliffhanger once again. You're welcome~ 
> 
> Please leave kudos if you feel like it, and especially comment down below! Let me know what you think is the source of the growling, and we'll see in the next chapter if you're right or not. WUVS!


	28. Chapter 28

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> RECAP: 
> 
> Grass rustled, made slick by dew, and that growl was repeated, louder this time. Both Camry and Tucker made wide eye contact for a split second before they said what they were both thinking at the exact same time.
> 
> " _Run_."

Never mind the possibility of falling off a cliff. Never mind the fact that neither teen could see more than a few feet in front of them. Never mind, never mind, never mind all that! All that mattered right then was getting away from whatever was growling in such a way that made the hairs on the back of their necks stand on end.

As they ran with arms pumping at their sides, the damp fog threatened to choke them with condensation and make them slip on their own slick soles. Only a few seconds into their sprinting, Tucker let out a yelp of surprise when he lost his footing and started to tumble down the side of a grassy hill. This allowed Camry to pull ahead of him, and as she passed by she seized his hand and dragged him up and after her with startling ease. "Come on, hurry!" she yelled, terror making her voice shrill.

Both slipped and slid down the steep hill, avoiding boulders and trees that sprouted up from the ground while risking glances over their shoulders. Only fog could be seen behind them, though, so it was impossible to tell if they were really being chased. 

"Whatever you do, don't let go!" Tucker exclaimed while tightening his grip on her hand. If it hadn't been for that, they likely would have gotten separated while weaving around the trees making up a dense forest on the knoll. 

"I wasn't planning to!" Camry answered, and then gasped out loud when the mist dropped away from them sharply to reveal a valley of dead grass and ringed by leafless trees. A concrete road wound through the area only to end at what looked remarkably like a train station. A few of its lights were on and shed some hope into their souls. 

On such a cold, cloudless night, all seven moons were visible in the night sky in varying phases and lit up the colorless world as easily as daytime could have. Camry found her feet slowing as shock settled in; she really was back in her own dimension! Tears that definitely weren't caused by the cold wind alone began to well up in her sphalerite eyes, but they were shoved back when Tucker tugged her back down to reality and forced her to look away from the sky. 

"Come on, come on!" he yelled frantically. "I can see it!"

"See what?" she yelled back before looking back at the fog. A sleek, shiny black form crouched low to the ground and quickly gained on them as their pace had been nearly halted altogether. In the bright moonslight, she made out a long furry tail, round ears, and bared fangs. Its eyes glowed a startling amber in the darkness. " _Ah!_ "

"Let's get inside!" Tucker decided, his grip somehow tightening even further on her hand as he put his heart into running faster. The ground under their feet shifted from grass to concrete, giving them the purchase they needed to make it the last few dozen yards to the train station's perimeter. 

The building was an open-air pavilion where the tracks ran through the middle so the train could be accessed on either side. Dusty-looking rails formed winding, blocky queues to all the different entrances and were bolted into the stone floor. 

"The L-Tram!" Camry cried out while pointing with her free hand, which held onto the drawstrings of her green bag. Stopped in the center aisle was a bullet-shaped vehicle with smooth chrome sides and at least a dozen sections split apart by seams in the body. Each section had multiple doors, all of which matched the silver of the 'train' itself. "Head for the second block!"

Tucker veered sharply to the right as per her instructions. Ducking under and jumping over the bars required that they let go of each other's hands, which was perfect for Camry as she reached into her bag and whipped out her dead phone. Though it was out of battery, it was still coming in handy after all. Panting and struggling to suck in enough air for their oxygen-deprived lungs, both Tucker and Camry spun around to see that the panther that had been in pursuit of them had reached the edge of the pavilion and was still hot on their tails.

"How do we get in?" Tucker asked frantically, his PDA in hand in the hopes that he could do something. There were no visible handles on the L-Tram's doors, so there was nothing to grab onto to try and pry it open.

Camry whipped her phone out and pressed the back against the door firmly, chanting under her ragged breath, "Please work, please work, please work," the entire time she waited for a response. It took a moment-- an eternity, if how it felt to the two of them was anything to consider-- but a green light flashed an inch over the top of her case. There was a pneumatic hiss to accompany the door sliding open, and Camry grabbed the front of Tucker's shirt to throw him in ahead of her. 

The panther was doing just as they had, ducking and weaving over the queue hurdles with the fluidity of liquid mercury. Another desperate growl ripped free of its throat, and it bared its deadly teeth in anticipation of sinking them into something much bigger than a wild rabbit or a bird. 

"Grab the door!" Camry screeched, latching onto the edge of the sliding door's side and pulling with every ounce of strength left in her body. Tucker joined in, throwing his shoulder into it and pushing. Six inches left-- five-- _three_ \--!

_Whump!_ The panther collided with the other side of the door, and the force carrying through the barrier threw Camry into stumbling back. A clawed paw forced its way into the opening between the door and the frame to scratch at the air, and a cry was pulled from Camry before she threw herself against the door again to push it those last few inches it needed to close. The paw retracted as soon as the panther realized it was going to get pinched if it didn't move, and with twin sighs of utter relief Tucker and Camry collapsed against the door to catch their breath. 

The cabin of the L-Tram was filled with their gasping heaves and, after a moment, a weak chuckle from Tucker. "Wow, that... was really intense."

"Terrifying," Cam agreed in a wheeze, and shakily got to her feet to pick up her phone. When she'd been pushed off the door, her grip on her phone had faltered and caused it to fly to the other side of the small room. In fact, the space they were in was remarkably small for a train, especially since it didn't have anywhere to sit. Maybe this was just a holding area, like an airlock in a space ship?

"So, what now?" Tucker asked. Some of his casualness had returned, and he crossed his arms easily over his chest while leaning back against the door. 

"I have to get my phone charged so I can ID myself," she answered while scooping up her device and frowning at the splintering cracks across the screen. "Oh, darn it...! Whatever, whatever. I need a charging panel-- Ah-ha!"

A hexagonal panel in the wall opposite the door lit up with blue light when she placed her phone on it, and to her delight the screen dimly came to life. 

"Why do you have to do that?" he asked curiously. "And where is everybody, too...?"

"If we don't register and buy tickets, the doors are gonna open automatically," Camry reported, her tone grave with the weight of the situation. "And the L-Tram is solar-powered and pretty much automatic, but you're right. It is kinda weird that nobody's around. Not even the wait staff's here..."

"Maybe that panther scared them off," Tucker guessed, a look of unease passing over his face as he risked a peek through the porthole-like window in the door. Just beyond their protection, the panther paced back and forth and rumbled deep, angry growls of unhappiness. "I know _I_ wouldn't want to be anywhere near that thing."

"But why's a _panther_ in a place like this?" Camry muttered, her insides churning with butterflies as she waited for her phone to finally reboot. Time was running out, and she could just about hear the automated voice coming over the speaker pleasantly telling her she was required to present her ID or be ejected from the Tram. 

" _Thank you for choosing to ride the L-Tram today. As per our policies, you are required to present an official ID and purchase the appropriate tickets for your intended carriage_ \--" 

"Come on, _come on!_ Hurry _up!_ " she yelled at her iPhone, as if that would make it charge any faster. 

" _Failure to comply with policy will result in your immediate rejection from boarding the L-Tram_ \--"

"I know, I know!" 

Tucker rested a calming hand on her shoulder a half-second before an icon appeared on Camry's screen. Inside the circle were two large, capital letters followed by a question mark: **ID?** " _Yes!_ " she yelled, stabbing her index finger against the button and freezing as a loading icon replaced it. 

"... _Thank you for your patronage, Miss Dowell_ ," said the automated voice. " _Please input the amount of tickets you will be purchasing and indicate which carriage you will be riding in. We currently have available seating in carriages A, B, C_ \--"

"And that'll be two tickets for carriage A, please and thank you," Camry commented as she spun the dials on the wall and confirmed her order. Another panel on the wall slid aside to reveal two white wristbands, which she took and offered one to Tucker. Another entrance to their right slid open with a gentle hiss and revealed the perfect place to sit back and relax. Plush seats lined the walls, and the roof was entirely clear to allow the moonslight to filter in. Of course, when the calm blue lights of the carriage flickered on, they no longer needed to see by moonslight alone. 

"Please sit in any available seats," a new, even more cordial voice chirped from unseen speakers. "We will be departing the Oaktown Station in approximately fifteen minutes. Feel free to stow any and all luggage in the compartments below your chosen seat, and enjoy your trip!"

Tucker was the first to sit down, and he chose a seat just right of center on the left side to melt into. "Wow, this _is_ deluxe. Where are we going?"

"Back to Bailey Lake, hopefully," was Camry's answer as she eased her rear into the seat next to his. "That's the city where I live. If we're in the Oaktown station, I think that means we're at the edge of the Tram's route."

"Cool," he commented, PDA in hand as per the usual. 

The sight of his (to her) archaic device reminded Camry of the real reason why he had insisted on coming to her dimension in the first place. With a knowing smirk, she lifted an armrest up and revealed a slim compartment underneath. She reached in and lifted out a tablet-sized piece of what looked like glass, but with a quick double tap of her index finger it flickered to life and welcomed her pleasantly with a cute female avatar dressed in a respectable train conductor's uniform. 

"Since we've got some time to kill before the Tram gets going, I think I'm gonna check out the news sites for stuff I missed while I've been gone," Camry explained, and then giggled at the wide-eyed look Tucker was giving the tablet. "There's another one in the armrest on your left, y'know."

"Oh, future tech, you do not fail to amaze," he said reverently when he had his own interface screen in his hands. "Hey, what's this?" Tucker selected an option in the L-Tram menu and was presented with pictures of cylindrical containers, all of which were empty. 

" _I'm sorry, honored guest, but it looks like we are currently out of the commodity you have selected_ ," the avatar, this one male-presenting on Tucker's screen, apologized in a perfect customer service voice. " _We will be working hard to have more in stock soon, though!_ "

"Huh? Oh, that's the oxygen bar," Camry explained. "Looks like they're all out of stock, though... That sucks! I bet you would've liked to try it."

"I think I've heard of that back home before, actually," he said thoughtfully. "What else is there?"

As it turned out, all of the refreshments that were usually available on the Tram were entirely depleted. This had Camry frowning because in all her memories of riding the L-Tram not once had there been absolutely nothing to eat or drink. "This is so _weird_. I wonder what the deal is."

"Maybe it's got something to do with how we haven't seen anybody working here," Tucker wondered out loud. It was a thought that didn't sit well with either of them, and they lapsed into silence that was only broken by the sounds of their fingers tapping on the clear screens. 

A drawn-out five minutes passed in peace until Camry sucked in a sharp breath and held it, her gaze wide and focused on the bottom right corner of her interface screen. "T... Tucker?"

"What's up?" he asked without looking up from what he was working on. 

"Does... Does that really say what I think it says, or do I just need my reading glasses?" she asked haltingly, and turned her screen toward him so he could see what she meant.

He peered into her face rather than at the tablet. "You wear glasses?"

"Tucker, _please_ , that's not the point," she sighed. "And they're _reading_ glasses. What do those numbers say?"

"They say 13/28/15," he reported. "Why?"

"I-I've been gone for _seven months?_ " she exclaimed, her hands shaking where they gripped the tablet. "That's... That's impossible! It's only been a handful of weeks, I swear!"

" _Seriously?_ " Tucker gasped. "Wait, didn't Clockwork mention something about a distortion between our dimensions?"

"M-Maybe...?"

"Then maybe time passes more quickly in your world relative to time passing in my world," he theorized. 

"But then, that means everyone's thought I've been dead even longer than I thought!" she fretted, fingers dancing over the screen nervously without making contact. "I can't believe I did this to them...!"

One of Tucker's eyebrows rose at that. "I thought a ghost named Crumb did this to you? And hey, now that I think about it, it sounded like you knew something about this ghost. What exactly is he?"

"His name is Crom, but I guess it does kinda sound like 'Crumb' if you say it with the right accent," Camry commented, briefly wandering down a rabbit trail in her head before snapping back to attention. "Crom Cruach was a pagan god of Ireland. The only reason I know who he is at all is because he was in a cartoon movie that Saoirse and I both love. And... I know what he looks like, of course, 'cause he killed me." A shudder ran up and down her spine at the memory. "A gigantic black snake."

"A _snake?_ " Tucker all but launched away from her without leaving his seat, his eyes wide with panic and highlighted oddly by the blue lighting in the cabin. "You've gotta be _kidding_ me! We've gotta fight a huge _snake_ god? This _sucks!_ "

"Are you afraid of snakes or something?" she asked him curiously.

"Well... Yes, okay, I admit it. I'm terrified of snakes," he huffed. "Don't rub it in or whatever."

"What's there to rub in?" Camry asked rhetorically with a shrug. "I'm pretty sure I'll never be able to look at a snake the same way ever again."

Tucker conceded to that with a nod and turned back to his screen before making the offhand comment of, "I wonder if Googling yourself will show anything about what's been going on."

"What's... 'Googling?'" Camry asked, testing out the new word experimentally. "I was thinking I'd just use the search engine."

"That's... what I meant."

"Oh. Okay, well, I guess we'll see what comes up..." Judging by the apprehensive weight to her words, the results were not something she particularly wanted to see. 

' _Camirelle Lidiare Dowell_ ' was typed out letter by letter into the search bar in the Internet icon. She pressed 'enter' and waited as a loading symbol appeared in a corner of the screen. Suddenly, the same avatar from before poked its head in and smiled forlornly at her. 

" _We're sorry, but access to the Internet on the L-Tram has been limited by a third party. All social media and major news networks have been restricted indefinitely. We apologize for the inconvenience! Here is what I found regarding your search_."

Just as the available articles began to appear, another voice piped up over the speakers to announce their imminent departure from Oaktown Station. With hardly any discernible movement at all, the tracks began to disappear underneath the nose of the Tram as it set off on its course. Both Camry and Tucker lifted their gazes from the screens to take in the sight of the dry grassland being swallowed beneath the bullet-shaped train, the seven moons lined up perfectly in the sky, and the dark outline of what looked like distant mountains. 

"Oh, wow," he breathed, eyes round with wonder at the sight of so many twinkling stars. The fog may have been thicker than split pea soup around the cemetery, but the night sky above was amazingly clear, which had been a factor in how bitterly cold outside was. Of course, it was little wonder why: since seven months had passed in this dimension's thirteen-month calendar cycle, it was now the dead of winter near a body of water. Thankfully, the heating was in perfect condition inside, and Camry's own fire core was doing its fair share in making the cabin as toasty as possible.

" _Our next stop will be coming up in approximately one hour and twelve minutes_ ," finished out the broadcast, and the Tram went silent save for the faint, barely audible humming of the tracks beneath the floor. 

With a frown, Camry skimmed over the articles that had appeared pertaining to her search. A few grainy images, an old story from a children-oriented newspaper concerning her fourth grade dancing troupe, and a list of winning projects in a sixth grade district science fair were the main contenders for her fleeting attention. "Ugh, there's nothing here. Stupid Internet ban... I wonder why someone would even bother to do that."

Tucker gave her a sidelong glance out of the corner of his right eye and smirked. "Is that all? Gimme a second."

His screen had gone black and was filled with rapidly moving, peach-colored text that he was typing into his PDA without even looking at his hands. As he worked, Camry stared with honest amazement in every part of her expression and waited for him to finish what he was doing. Then he switched off the interface screen and reached for hers to fiddle around with its files. Though she was certainly smart and knew how to troubleshoot technology issues as well as any other kid her age, the next few minutes passed by with her in stunned, confused silence as she tried to make sense of his actions.

" _Aaand_... bingo. No more Internet ban," he stated triumphantly, handing back the tablet. "But I gotta say, some of the data in those firewalls looked pretty sophisticated. Whoever designed the software knew what they were doing."

"But _you_ clearly did, too," Camry said, awed. "How'd you _do_ that? You've been in this dimension for all of half an hour and you're _already_ a wizard of our tech?"

"What can I say? I'm just that amazing." 

It was time for take two of a search, and this time Camry decided not to use her middle name. 'Camirelle Dowell' garnered hundreds of hits instantly, the most recent coming from about four months ago. She selected the first one, a news report from a local station, and waited for the video to load. 

A newsman dressed neatly in a suit clarified from pixels and began speaking into his microphone, which bore the name of the station. "...and in other news, a strange and inexplicable explosion erupted late last night in the suburban home of Sadie and Mason Dowell. Though police are still investigating its cause, the premature suspect is a supposed gas leak that caught fire. The Dowells' only daughter, Camirelle, has been reported missing as no body has been found anywhere in the house. If anyone has any knowledge of the teen's whereabouts, they are urged to contact the local police station immediately."

"So they probably do think I'm dead, if I've been gone this long," she muttered, resting her cheek against her fist and leaning her elbow on the right armrest of her seat. "God, I can't believe what a mess all of this has become."

Tucker's response to that was a quiet, noncommittal hum without tearing his eyes away from his work. Because that was the end of the important part of the report, Camry exited out of that site and moved on to the next, which was a written article dated about a month and a half after the news story regarding the accident aired. Her sphalerite eyes flicked over the words rapidly, taking them all in so fast that it was a true wonder she retained any of it. 

_A memorial service was held in the Oaktown Cemetery today to honor the memory of a young high school teen, Camry Lidiare Dowell. Missing since early July, there has been little news regarding her whereabouts. Her grieving parents are still hopeful about finding her; it is their insistence that has kept the search ongoing.  
Nevertheless, her memory was celebrated at the cemetery for family, friends, and peers alike. Among those who spoke, recounting fond memories of the teen, were her parents, her dance instructor of several years, and Laker High's freshman science teacher. A stirring piano performance from the late teen's best friend, Saoirse Mahadeo, noticeably left many in tears, including the performer herself.   
Whether or not she truly is gone, Camry Dowell certainly will not be forgotten. Her memory lives on in the hearts and minds of her friends and family, all of whom are eager and hoping to see her again._

Entirely silent, too stunned and heartbroken to make even the tiniest of sounds, she closed her eyes and tried to picture what the memorial must have been like. With the late August sun beating down on the cemetery, it would have been difficult to incorporate the typical black attire of funeral-goers. 'Saoirse played the piano for me... I wonder what song she played. I wonder what Mr. Maynard said about me. I hope Madame Descoteaux didn't tell everyone about that time I tripped and brought down the entire backdrop during our dress rehearsal... Oh, who am I kidding; she totally did. She's been laughing about that for _years_ now.'

"Y'know, a thought just occurred to me," Tucker spoke up after a lengthy span of silence between himself and Camry. "You've seen plenty of Amity Park, but I've never been to your city before. Whattaya say about you and me hittin' the town together once all this Crom stuff blows over, huh?"

Had it not been the wink he punctuated the proposal with, nothing about his idea would have seemed flirtatious to Camry whatsoever. Then again, social cues weren't exactly her forte. His wink brought a faint, pinkish-orange heat to her cheeks and forced her mouth to go dry as she turned her gaze to her lap. 

How was she going to tell him the truth if she had absolutely no idea how he would react?

"Well... I'd love to show you and Danny and Sam around Bailey Lake if we got the chance, but... something tells me you're hoping it would be a date between you and me. Right?" Her tone was soft-- meek, even. 

"If it was in the cards, then I don't see why not," was his confident answer. 

"Yeah, that's... what I was afraid of." Camry shifted in her seat, hiking up one leg and laying it flat against her seat cushion so she could face Tucker with a little more ease. "I'm sorry, but... we're just too alike to date each other."

"But isn't being alike a good thing?" he asked, raising a confused eyebrow at her. 

"No, no-- well, yeah, it is, but I mean it in a different way. You..." She sucked in a deep breath and let it out carefully. "You like girls, right?"

"Yeah...?"

"So do I."

And there it was. She studied his face cautiously, searching for the imminent disappointment and possible disgust bound to be there any second. While her own dimension had progressively begun accepting the LGBT+ community's ideals into modern society over the past several decades, it was impossible to say if his dimension had done the same. Would he react negatively to the news that she was a lesbian?

"Wait, then that means..." Tucker pursed his lips in thoughts, eyes narrowing at nothing in particular. Then his face lit up with a sudden realization. "If we hit the town, you could be my wingman! Wingwoman? Whatever, it would totally work. Hey, what's so funny?"

When the shock dissipated, Camry had clapped a gloved hand over her mouth to stifle her bubbling laughter. The way her shoulders shook was a dead giveaway, and as soon as he asked her that she let it all out. She pressed a hand to the side of her hair and carded her fingers through it as tears of relief welled in her eyes. "Wow, that-- I wasn't expecting that at all. Thank you, Tucker," she said gratefully when her giggling subsided. "I guess I had nothing to worry about after all, huh?"

He eyed her curiously, a little unsure of her having such a strange reaction. "Uh... You're welcome? I mean, to be honest with you, one of my aunts is a lesbian. I'm kinda used to all that 'cause of her. What, did you think I would hate you or something if I knew?"

"I dunno... it wouldn't be the first time that happened," Camry admitted, and wiped at her eyes delicately with an index finger. "But I worked myself up over it, so that's my fault."

Tucker shrugged nonchalantly. "No worries, Cam. So, hey, what's with the seven moons in the sky, anyway? How does that even work?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> M'kay, so I didn't want to use this reveal as shock factor, but I also didn't want to say it right away because I love dropping hints. That's why I'm hoping you'll recognize some of those hints if you ever go back and reread earlier chapters. 
> 
> ALSO if you do decide to reread and look for the clues, then _**PLEASE DO NOT SPOIL THE SURPRISE IN THE COMMENTS**_. A previous series written on my wattpad account was rather notorious with that problem, so I'd really like to avoid that in this story.
> 
> And yay! I finished the chapter! Stuff's about to get _real_ pretty soon, so make sure you stay tuned for the next update! See you then~


	29. Chapter 29

Bathed in calm blue light and lounging in relative silence, Tucker took a moment to look around and let the reality of his surroundings sink in. Something about the L-Tram, with its clear roof and interesting choice of lighting, gave him the sensation of being underwater. The only thing that could have completed the fantasy would have been fish swimming over them, or maybe--

 _Pit, pat, pit, pat_. 

And there it was. Over the last hour, the sky above had darkened with cloud cover that eventually blocked the moons from view, much to his disappointment. Once the rainfall began, it didn't take long for it to turn into a steady downpour that would have drenched anyone standing out there for more than a few seconds. One corner of his lips drifted up in a mellow half-smile turned toward the rain hitting the top of the curved dome roof. 

Camry, who had been resting quietly with her head tilted back against the head rest, opened her eyes a split second after the pitter-patter began to grow louder. A soft exhale escaped her, and she broke the silence by commenting, "Huh. It's raining. I wonder if it's going to turn into a storm."

"By the way it sounds like it's coming down out there, I wouldn't be surprised," was Tucker's detached reply. 

Their speed formed race tracks of water droplets that streamed over the glass constantly. The sight was calming, and enticed Camry to stare at the sky until her eyelids felt too heavy to keep open. Just as they began to drift shut once more, a spark of light flashed through her eyelids and forced her into sitting up straighter. The afterimage of a lightning bolt lingered on her retinas and clouded her sight. 

_Boom!_ Distant thunder rocked the world and was soon followed by another and another. By the second bolt of lightning striking, Camry found herself flinching with secondhand unease and folding her arms tightly over her chest. 'I hope Saoirse's with her family right now...'

"Wow, it kinda feels like we're in a submarine right now," Tucker chuckled mostly to himself. "Since it's so dark and blue, we could be at the bottom of the ocean right now."

Camry shook her head at that idea. "Ugh, no thanks. Not a big fan of the ocean, to tell the truth."

"Or thunder, by the looks of it," he observed.

Again, she shook her head. "No, I actually love lightning and thunder. I think it's amazing, and this would be absolutely perfect if I knew for sure that Saoirse wasn't alone right now. She's afraid of thunder and lightning." 

Her frown gradually evolved into a fond, faint smile at the memories that were surfacing all of a sudden. "And she'd always text me when a storm started, or I would text her first and make sure she was okay. I never minded, even if it was in the middle of the night..."

At that admission, Tucker had to raise a curious eyebrow. This new knowledge, coupled with what he had learned about her sexuality barely an hour ago, must equal something bigger going on, right? 'Hmmm...'

Then, because he knew it would be funny to get a little rise out of her, he jokingly said, "Wait, you're in _love_ with this Saoirse, _aren't_ you?"

The squeak Camry choked out just then sounded incredibly mouse-like, high-pitched and startled. Her cheeks positively glowed with heat, and the temperature in the cabin of their train jumped up a noticeable ten degrees in seconds. "Wh-Wh- _Whaaat?_ C-C'mon, I-- I-I mean-- Uhhh-- wait, uhhh--! _You_ \--!"

Tucker snorted, laughter building in his chest at her flustered words and expression. "Oh, man, I was totally kidding but you totally _are!_ "

"Sh-Shut up," she moaned weakly, hiding her face in both hands as her blush somehow managed to still grow. It encased her ears and raised the temperature even more while an orange, lava-like color brightened the apples of her cheeks. "Don't y-you _dare_ say anything about this to anybody, got it?"

"Oh man, I can't _wait_ to meet the girl you've got a crush on," he said while turning back to his interface screen. "And in other news, it looks like at least one of your powers came back because I'm getting the urge to take my shirt off and use it as a fan."

Camry sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly; her exhale was peppered with faint wisps of light grey smoke and ash. The blush died down to a faint, remarkably human shade of pink, and the cabin began to cool off as well. "Better?"

"Little bit."

The Tram shook ever so slightly all around them, and a cheerful voice announced over the intercom, " _We are now approaching Burnsen Station. Please gather all of your belongings and exit in an orderly fashion if this is your stop. Thank you for riding the L-Tram!_ "

"Sweet!" Camry cheered. "That means we're only a few more stops from the one I usually get off at. But I guess we should figure out where to go before we actually get off, huh?"

Tucker held up his hands in a nonchalant gesture. "Hey, it's your dimension, so you can lead the way."

Bent forward with her elbows resting on her knees, Camry laced her fingers together but pressed the sides of her indexes together against her lips contemplatively. "I know, but... should we start by going to my house, or do we look for people around the city to find out what's going on? I know there were a lot of missing people in those news reports, but _everyone_ can't be gone, right?" 

That exact idea had been lingering in the back of her head for a solid half an hour when she made the offhand comment that the city of Bailey Lake should be visible through the front of the Tram and Tucker didn't believe her at first. 

"No, I'm serious. It's right-- there... Why is the city so _dark?_ " she had wondered aloud with a panicky undertone in her voice. "I can't even see the Sky Trio Towers! Bailey Lake's _huge_ \-- we should _at least_ be seeing lights in the distance!"

In the present, she looked over at Tucker as if to silently ask him for his input. "You said there was something about little green snakes biting people, right?" he recalled. "There's gotta be some sort of connection to Crom and the disappearances. All of this happening all at once can't be a coincidence."

"You don't think so?" Camry asked rhetorically. "I have to agree. And if my memory isn't making stuff up, I think I remember Crom mentioning wanting to do something before he spliced me from my body."

"What did he say, exactly?" Tucker asked. She had his full, uneasy attention by then as his fingers stopped moving over the screen.

She grumbled under her breath. "I can't remember _exactly_ what he said-- just that he needed practice for whatever it was. And... maybe something about... a feast?"

"A _feast?_ " he echoed, eyes wide behind the rims of his glasses. 

Camry nodded solemnly, a grimace apparent on her face. "Now that I think about it, I kept getting called a 'mouse' in those weird dreams and visions I kept having. And snakes eat mice... And I remember he swallowed me when everything went black..." A shudder ran up her spine and spread across her shoulders, down her arms and to her fingertips. "Ugh. I can't wait to block that memory from my brain forever."

The mood in the cabin had shifted to palpable unrest at the subject, and Camry found herself laughing ironically in a weak attempt to lessen the tension. "I hope all the tech you're discovering's been worth the trip so far, Tuck."

"Y'know, this has been really cool," he admitted. "Maybe we won't have to worry about Technus for a while after I get all this data into my gear. That'd be _awesome_. But anyway! Are we gonna focus on looking for people first?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "I guess we do still need to find Danny and Sam, so that's probably a step in the right direction." At the mention of his two best friends, Tucker's face became drawn with barely-concealed worry, but he shook it off and turned back to the Tram interface on his knees. 

His feelings didn't go unnoticed, but the awkward Camry didn't really know what else she could say that hadn't already been expressed. She sufficed with bumping his arm with her elbow and sinking back into her seat. Rather than close her eyes, however, she pulled up her own tablet and used her newfound Internet freedom to navigate to the number one video-sharing website, WeTube. The WeTuber's name was typed out with the ease of a password that never, ever changes, and the sight of Saoirse's thumbnail images for her videos veritably soothed Camry's soul.

HijabiHilights was her WeTube name, and she must have posted something huge recently because her follower count had more than doubled since Camry last checked; back then, they'd celebrated her reaching the half of a million threshold! "Whoa," she whispered under her breath, then went to see what her most recent videos had been about. The first one in the lineup was titled in all caps and read, "URGENT!! CAMRY IS MISSING, PLEASE HELP ME FIND HER!!" The thumbnail was a screenshot of Saoirse sitting at her desk in her bedroom and clearly on the verge of tears. 

Camry's shaking pointer finger hovered a centimeter over the tablet's surface as uncertainty twisted her stomach into knots. 'I'm _definitely_ going to cry if she cries in this, but I gotta know what she says in this. Ugh, and I don't have any earbuds, either.'

"Hey, uh, I'm gonna go sit over there and watch this-- so I don't bother you," she explained to Tucker, who barely lifted his head to acknowledge what she'd said. Camry hopped up and brought the tablet to the other side of the Tram at the same moment the transport slowed to a stop in Burnsen Station. She took a seat and pressed on the video window to start it.

The screen was filled with Saoirse's face instantly, and she forced on a weak smile for her viewers. 'No intro...?' Camry wondered in the back of her mind. 'And she's not wearing makeup like she usually is. Her eyes are so red... Oh no...'

"Hey there, everyone," she began in her slightly accented, naturally sweet voice. "I'm sure you're wondering where the intro card is, and why there's no music in the background. The reason is because I'm throwing this video together really quickly to try and get the word out A.S.A.P. My best friend Camry, who I'm sure you remember from some of my previous videos, has gone missing."

The shot cut to clips of the aforementioned videos where Camry and Saoirse were laughing together while they answered Q&A questions, made mistakes while doing each other's makeup, and even vlogged a trip to a fair held on a floating acre. Each memory sent a pang of longing through her heart, but Camry didn't give up on seeing the video through to the end. 

"There was an accident-- some sort of explosion-- at her house a few days ago," Saoirse continued when she was back onscreen. With the fingers of one idle hand, she toyed with the fringe of her jet black hijab. "I know that sounds bad, but there hasn't been any evidence of a... a... _b_ \-- a body anywhere at all. That's why I'm _not_ going to give up on finding her, no matter what it takes."

Tears filled the young teen's bloodshot eyes, and she quite obviously blinked them back. "Then I realized that I had so many people all around the world that I could turn to for help, which is why I'm here on your computer screen right now. If you hear or see _anything_ that might help us find her, then please tell the authorities right away. With so many of us hilighters keeping our eyes open, I'm sure it won't take too long to find her."

'So all she knows is that there was an explosion at my house, and nobody's found my body' Camry realized. 'That's pretty much what I learned from seeing into that little portal my Polaroid made in Danny's backyard.'

"I'll keep an eye on my social media accounts as much as possible in case you guys chirp me or send me a message," Saoirse continued solemnly, and links to her accounts appeared as usual on the screen. "Just make sure you contact the police before you worry about letting me know, alright? You have no idea how much it would mean to me if you all pitched in; Camry is my best friend in this entire universe, and I don't know what I'd do without her. Thank you so much for watching, my hilighters, and don't forget to keep an eye on your own rays of sunshine."

A tear streaked down her cheek of its own accord just as the shot cut away again rather hastily, this time to play an old clip from a video where Saoirse was practicing doing makeup on a significantly paler skin tone than her own. With each girl being only fourteen years old back then, they looked a bit different; Camry's hair had been a little bit longer, and Saoirse's freckles hadn't brightened with recent summer sun at that point in the year. 

Carefully, with the tip of her tongue sticking out of her mouth for good measure, Saoirse brushed some pink eyeshadow onto Camry's left eyelid and pulled back when her test subject started to giggle unexpectedly. "What?" Saoirse asked her, mirth shining on her face.

"It just tickles more than I expected," a younger Camry admitted, her cheeks tinted pink with more than just a cosmetic blush. "Go ahead, keep doing what you're doing."

"Okay, if you're sure," Saoirse said before going back in with the product. The instant the soft bristles touched her eyelid again, Camry snorted and squeezed her eyes shut tight. " _Caaam!_ C'mon, does it really tickle _that_ much?"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" she laughed, opening one eye as she tried to cover her embarrassed grin. "I'm trying not to laugh, honest!"

Though she tried to look stern, Saoirse was easily susceptible to Camry's contagious giggles, and by the third attempt to put eyeshadow on her the two teens were snickering and giggling uncontrollably at basically nothing at all. That was where the video ended, with the two of them looking like the perfect poster children of best friendship. 

'God, I am so gay' Camry thought to herself, that blush returning to her cheeks as she recalled that exact day and moment. Surprisingly, the urge for her to match Saoirse's heartbroken emotions had been quelled by the last little clip. Even so, she wiped at her eyes for good measure and returned to her seat next to Tucker. Neither of them said anything, and just a few minutes after, the Tram began to move down the tracks again. 

They were on their way to bigger things, as it would seem, whether they wanted to be or not.

~~

Gentle prodding at her side roused Camry from a dozing, half-aware state of pseudo sleep all at once. Her leap into clarity threatened whiplash, and she blinked stars from her eyes as a result. "Wuh--?"

"We're getting close to a station," Tucker said, having been the one to wake her up. "And I think I can see people standing on the platform."

"Really?" she gasped with her eyes wide and mouth open in excitement. This meant that not all hope was lost! After skimming over so many-- countless, really-- missing person reports on the Internet from only a couple of months back, the city looked like it could easily have been entirely empty. 

The clock on the corner of both their interfaces stated that it was nearing seven in the morning, though the overcast sky was dark enough for it to still be hours before that. Camry rose from her seat and got right up against the curved window, which dipped down just low enough for her to see through. Tucker hadn't been kidding: the upcoming station was near the center of the dark city, but a few of its lights were on. The way they contrasted with their surroundings reminded her of the lighthouses she would see when traveling to a coastline with her parents. 

"Wait, where are the people?" she wondered aloud, peering out in search of those elusive figures. 

"I swear I just saw them on the edge," Tucker promised as he joined her at the window. "Maybe-- oh, there they are."

The L-Tram had pulled further into the station and was slowing in preparation to stop. This afforded them a better view of the station's platform-- not to mention the small group of shrouded silhouettes waiting for the Tram and standing near the far side of the waiting area. When the Tram glided past them, both Camry and Tucker had to squish their faces against the plexiglass to try and get a good look at whoever they were. All Camry caught in the fleeting glance she got were stylish winter clothes, mask-like goggles, and what were bulky and undoubtedly powerful _guns_. 

"T-Tucker?" she whispered, stricken with fear to the point that her body went entirely stiff. "Did y-you see what they were carrying?"

"Yeah, I did," he answered in a low, stealthy tone. "They looked like anti-ghost weapons to me, but I'd have to get a closer look."

Camry couldn't suppress the squeak that escaped her at the sound of that. " _A-Anti-ghost weapons?_ Tuck, _I'm_ a ghost!"

He grimaced at that and stepped back from the window to take in her appearance. "Well... Maybe if you can keep your powers in check, they won't be able to tell? Although you do have that white aura around you... And your voice doesn't sound exactly right, either."

"What's _that_ supposed to mean?" she asked sassily, both gloved hands on her hips indignantly.

He held up his hands, palms facing outward, to deflect her 'wrath.' "Hey, it's just a quality about ghosts. That's all I'm saying. I'm surprised you didn't notice it with Danny, since he switches back and forth between being human and ghost all the time. Your voice is kinda tinny, almost like it's coming through a weak phone connection."

"It is?" Camry asked while putting both hands around her throat. 'I wonder why I never noticed that before...'

"Here, I got it," Tucker said quickly. He slammed the side of his fist into his palm for added measure. "We'll go out there, and you let me do all the talking. We'll tell them that we're from the edge of town and looking for someone who can tell us where everyone's going."

"You really think that will work?" she asked nervously. Her hands had migrated from her throat to her chest and pressed against her sternum solidly to ground herself. 

"C'mon, don't forget your stuff," he said, and pointed to the shiny green drawstring bag she had left on her seat. "This is our best chance so far. We've gotta find out what's going on, and these are the first people we've seen since arriving here."

" _The L-Tram will be departing from Cransmeyer Station in ten minutes_ ," the automated 'conductor' announced over the intercom in their perpetually chipped voice, spurring them to get off the transport before it took them away. 

The duo passed through the sliding doors quickly, with Camry clinging close to his heels as they walked. They found themselves in the holding area, and then the sealed doors were open and letting in bitterly brisk air that sent tremors up and down their entire bodies. Tucker shivered visibly, but something deep within Camry pushed back against the cold until she could barely feel a thing. Nevertheless, Tucker's clothes were not suited for the weather at all, and Camry drew closer to hide behind him and offer some of her warmth.

When they stepped onto the tile floor of the platform, they saw the group of roughly half a dozen people unloading crates and boxes from a compartment further down on the L-Tram. The supplies was then loaded onto carts, which would likely then take everything to some secondary transport system. As the bundled-up people working were concentrating on their tasks, they didn't notice the pair of newcomers right away. It wasn't until Camry's grip on her bag faltered and caused her to noisily drop it that the group looked up and right at her and Tucker. A barrage of disorganized chatter exploded at them all at once as she swooped down to scoop it back into her arms.

" _Wha_ \--?"

"Oh my gosh, _hi!_ Are you guys okay?"

"Where did you _come_ from?"

"I've never seen them around here before. Have you?"

"What's going on out here?" This particular voice carried a certain timbre to it that gave its speaker authority. She stepped out of the L-Tram's open door and adjusted the goggles resting on her forehead as she peered at Tucker and Camry. "Wait-- what are you two doing here? Shouldn't you be back at Delta Pin?"

"Delta Pin?" Tucker muttered under his breath before answering at a normal volume. "Uh, hi! We're from out of town and were trying to figure out what happened to everyone."

"You're only just _now_ coming into town?" she asked, suspicious by how her eyes narrowed. "That's so weird... I thought the quarantine herded everyone into Delta Pin already." 

The leader let out a huff and put her gloved fists on her hips. "Well, I'm glad to see you two aren't bitten. We can get you taken care of and set up at Delta Pin once we get all this cargo unloaded. I'm Brooke, by the way. What're your names?"

Brooke wore a beanie cap over her long auburn hair, and her garnet eyes glimmered under the fluorescent lights of the Tram station platform. By the looks of it, she was no older than her late teens. In fact, it seemed like everyone working to unload the supplies from the Tram were in the same age ballpark. 

"I'm Tucker, and this is--" he started to say, but then paused when Camry put a hand on his shoulder urgently and shook her head. "Huh...?"

She leaned up to whisper something in his ear, and he nodded in understanding. "And this is my friend _Relle_. Sorry, she's kinda shy."

"No worries, no worries," Brooke said easily. She turned back to everyone else and reminded them quickly that they only had until the Tram pulled out of the station to get everything unloaded, and the work resumed. Some four minutes later, even the heaviest of crates had been hauled out safely onto the platform. Cam couldn't help but take note of the logo stamped onto most of the boxes: an eagle, and the initials of the United States of America. 

'The government sent this? And Brooke did mention a quarantine just a minute ago...'

Nothing seemed out of the ordinary to the 'scavengers' about the newcomers at first, but that was mostly because Camry had been doing her best to remain hidden behind Tucker under the pretense of shyness. Maybe no one would notice the little things that weren't quite right about her if she just didn't draw attention to herself, right? That was her hope.

Of course, that hope was dashed to pieces the instant one of those bulky, anti-ghost rifles Camry had been eyeing fell over from its place on the wall and made a huge clattering sound that spooked her into turning invisible on instinct. 

Sounds of confusion and shock filled the open area. Tucker spun around to look (or not look, _technically_ ) at her with wide eyes. A quick glance down at her body revealed what she'd done, and she quickly reverted back to 'normal.' It was too late, though. The business ends of half a dozen ray guns were trained on the two of them in an second.

"What the heck just _happened?_ " one guy exclaimed. 

"She's gotta be a ghost!" another boy announced with far more certainty than he felt. 

"What if she's actually another one of those _snakes?_ " a girl hypothesized, though her voice was muffled by the scarf pulled up over her nose. 

Their hands were up in 'we surrender' poses, and Camry cringed away from the nearest person only to bump into Tucker's arm. "Sorry..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, snap. 
> 
> Please leave a comment down below (maybe leave a prediction for what's gonna happen next?) and kudos as well, if you feel so inclined. See you in the next chapter~!


	30. Chapter 30

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> RECAP: 
> 
> Their hands were up in 'we surrender' poses, and Camry cringed away from the nearest person only to bump into Tucker's arm. "Sorry..."

All six armed teens formed a near semi-circle around Tucker and Camry, who didn't dare move when just as many ray guns were focused on their heads. A few were talking at once, nervously chattering the first fearful thoughts to enter their brain. 

"What the heck is going _on?_ "

"Who are you, _really?_ " 

"Oh my god, oh my god...!"

"Brooke, what do we do?" someone who had yet to speak yet asked their leader. The sound of his voice, which carried the faintest trace of a romantic language in its undertones, all but stopped Camry's nonexistent heart. 

"I..." Brooke choked, clearly as unprepared for this as all the others with her. 

"Wait a sec, whoa there!" Tucker piped up, his hands still raised. "We're not enemies, guys!"

"W-W--" Camry-- or Relle, as far as these scavengers knew-- stuttered in a breaking voice before she cleared her throat. "We're here to _help!_ "

Gazes hidden behind goggles rapidly flipped between the two of them and their leader, who looked puzzled at such a statement. "Help? Help, how?"

Tucker gave her a sidelong glance as a prompt to keep talking, which is exactly what she forced herself to do. "W-We know about the snake-- the one that's probably been causing all the disappearances around town. That's why we're here, okay? We want to stop him a-and try to fix my-- all of this. This huge mess. Ugh, just-- I-I can't think straight with you guys pointing guns at me, alright?"

That same boy with the faint accent murmured something under his breath at the same time she did, and their eyes met for the briefest of seconds. She couldn't see any part of his face because of how bundled up he was, but it was evident by the way she visibly seemed to relax that she was comforted by his presence. 

Brooke cleared her throat conspicuously and only lowered her weapon a few inches. "Well, we're not gonna _not_ protect ourselves, got it? That's just stupid. But if you guys really do want to help us... maybe we can take you back with us."

" _What?_ " more than one person exclaimed in protest. 

A girl with a single, fraying black braid down the middle of her back spun to face her leader. "Brooke, we can't risk the safety of everyone back at Delta Pin! And what do we do with them when we get back, huh? Just let them wander around or something?"

"No, we'll keep an eye on them," Brooke answered calmly. Her mind had been made up. "Because if they put one foot out of line, _they'll regret it_." She eyed both Tucker and Camry sternly in a way that clearly said she meant business, and both awkwardly chuckled without moving their arms from their surrendering positions. 

The guns were lowered slowly, hesitantly, and the two 'prisoners' breathed out twin sighs of audible relief. "You're gonna keep your hands where we can see them, got it?" the same girl that had talked back to Brooke barked suddenly. "And you." The menacing end of her ray gun was back up and jabbing Camry firmly in the chest. She flinched in response but didn't try to push it away. "You'd better not do that again. I'm warning you."

"Hey, whoa," the accented boy piped up suddenly as he pulled down the bandana from around his mouth. His gloved hand fell on her shoulder, and he pulled her back gently. "Tone it down, alright? Maybe they really can help."

She huffed and backed off without going far, leaving him to awkwardly stand near Tucker and Camry. He stretched his arms over his head and then faced the two of them, his hands on his hips. "Tucker, right? And Relle? Nice to meet you guys."

"Is this... sort of like a 'good cop, bad cop' bit right here?" Tucker asked slowly with pointed looks between the riled up girl and this other boy.

"I'm so glad you're alright," Camry said suddenly, her tone taking on that quality of whenever she was perfectly comfortable around someone. How strange it was for her to flip from being entirely on edge just seconds ago to _this_. "I didn't know what to think, after what I kept seeing..."

Cryptic, but it didn't give away her identity or true meaning. His smile vanished to be replaced by something a bit more melancholic. "Yeah, it's pretty crazy what's going on around here. I still have a hard time believing it, and I've been here since all this started! Anyway, call me Dude. And don't worry about Emmy over there. She's... been through a lot lately. We all have."

Ah, so _this_ was one of Camry's best friends. From what Tucker had heard from her, Dude was definitely shaping up to be a kind and funny person upon his first impression. His skin was tan, even in the dead of winter, thanks to his Mexican heritage. When he pulled his goggles off his face, he revealed dark eyes the color of black opal-- floral harlequin black opal, to be truly accurate. A gold piercing curved around his left eyebrow. He wore a snapback hat underneath his thrown-up jacket hood, so his hair and ears were fully protected from the cold.

Tucker couldn't help but stare when he got a good look at the color of Dude's eyes. "Dude... whoa, why are your eyes so many colors all at _once?_ " 

Camry stiffened at the question; she'd forgotten to explain it all to him back on the Tram! Dude simply laughed and spoke frankly. "It's 'cause I've got black opal eyes, man. Wait, don't tell me you've never seen anyone with opal eyes before."

Tuck shook his head mutely. 

"Whoa, you must'a lived somewhere _really_ rural, I guess," Dude managed to comment before he was called away by a couple other scavengers. He zipped over to them, all smiles and cheeriness, and started to talk to them immediately. This gave Tucker the chance to face Camry and hit her with a confused look. 

"What the heck, Cam?" he asked in a low whisper. "I have no idea what to make of that."

"Sorry," she murmured sheepishly, lifting a hand to rub the back of her neck. She paused in the motion when she caught how Emmy, the girl who had been poking Cam with her gun, glared and readjusted her hands' grip on her weapon. "I meant to tell you more about this dimension, but I kept getting sidetracked by all the missing persons reports I kept finding."

She lifted a finger to point to her right eye and tried not to pay any mind to Emmy's predatory stares. "We all have eye colors that mimic different gemstones here. Back before all of this ghost nonsense hit me like a freight train, I had iolite eyes. Now, these are what you'd call sphalerite."

"And your friend, Dude, has 'black opal' eyes," Tucker supplied thoughtfully, a hand on his chin. "Okay, I guess I can see that... But that's so _weird!_ People don't have eye colors that crazy back home."

"Yeah, true, I noticed that while I was in your-- home," Camry agreed, and caught herself before she could say 'dimension.' Neither of them were sure it was wise to mention the idea of multiple dimensions with the scavengers around, even if one of them was someone they could (hopefully) count on to be an ally eventually. "And that was totally weird for me, too. I kept looking for more variety, but I saw a lot of the same gems in other people's eyes."

"I have so many questions," Tucker said earnestly, and then frowned for a second before asking, "What gem would you say is _my_ eye color?"

"Green beryl," was her immediate answer. "Without a doubt. And before you ask, Sam is an amethyst. Danny goes from blue topaz to peridot when he... y'know. You're gonna see a lot of different eye colors around here, especially since we're in a big city like Bailey Lake."

"Is there anything _else_ I should know about before we go further into the city?" he asked, both curious and a bit sarcastic in the way he raised an eyebrow at her.

"Um..." she hummed for a moment as she mulled it over. "The trees glow at night?"

" _What? How?_ "

~

When all the supplies had been loaded into a pair of huge pickup trucks and safely strapped down, everyone had to climb in and squish together because of their two extra passengers. As per one of the scavengers' request, Camry hesitantly consented to wearing handcuffs to help make them all feel a little safer. Tucker sent her look after look for agreeing to it, but all she could do was offer an unbothered shrug as she was helped into the back seat of a truck. 

"Couldn't she just, I dunno, fly away or something?" Emmy hypothesized loudly as she claimed to front passenger seat for herself. "If she's a ghost, I mean."

' _Great_ ,' Camry internally groaned, 'I'm stuck with _her_ the whole way back.' She also knew that a trip from Cransmeyer Station to the Delta Pin Shopping Center was at least twenty minutes, so it looked like she was in for a rough almost half an hour at the merciless hands of Emmy. 

When she glanced out the window, her heart fell at the sight of Dude climbing into the other truck after Tucker. A complete stranger squeezed himself into the mini-seat beside Camry's and slammed the door shut behind him, cutting her off from any real chance of escape. The way he laid his gun across his lap with the barrel aimed right at her told Camry that he wasn't at all comfortable being around her. 'Not that I can blame him for being scared...'

"No, actually," Camry said in answer to Emmy's jab, "I _can't_ fly. Trust me, I've tried." 

"Except that I _don't_ trust you," Emmy shot back quickly. Brooke had taken up the driver's seat and started the truck, which sputtered wearily before revving into gear. "And there's basically nothing you can do to change my mind." 

"Okay, fine, then," Camry sighed. "Just... can one of you _please_ tell me what's going on around here?"

"What, your pal the _snake_ didn't let you in on his evil plot?" 

" _Y'know what--!_ " Cam's heated words caught in her throat when she noticed the other boy shifting uncomfortably and fidgeting with his weapon. By the way he pulled at the collar of his jacket, he was feeling a little too warm for the season. Guilt washed over Camry, and she sucked in a deep breath to let it out slowly and disperse some of her inner heat building up. "Listen, Emmy. You don't have to trust me if you don't want to, but I am telling the truth about not knowing what's going on. So, if there's anything you can tell me that might make it easier to stop the ghost doing whatever he's doing to the city, I need to know it."

Silence filled the truck for a few tense moments before Brooke cleared her throat, much to the betrayed look Emmy displayed oh so plainly. "I'm surprised that you really don't know anything, Relle. I mean, the government's quarantine around the city has been going on for at least two and a half months. Wouldn't it be three by now...? I guess it would. 

"Anyway, people started to disappear right and left. They'd just vanish, and no one could figure it out for the longest time. Then, one night, a huge swarm of these little green snakes burst out of the lake and started to bite everyone they could find. That's when we saw what getting bitten does to you. The snake... it disappears inside of you, and you walk into the lake like you're in a trance."

Her voice trembled as she recounted the undoubtedly heartbreaking memories. "The-- The next day, everyone who was left made it to Delta Pin, and the government had started setting up barriers around the city. I guess they knew what they were doing, because after that they began sending us supplies through the L-Tram. That's pretty much where we're at right now: we've set up camp in the mall, and the government has been giving us weapons and food to help us get by until they can figure out what to do about the ghost snakes."

"Wow, I... I had no idea," Camry said softly, twiddling her thumbs idly in her lap. She looked at each of the three scavengers carefully in turn, taking note of their reactions to the story and wondering what they must have gone through to have made it this far. "So... How many of you are unbitten?"

"Don't tell her that!" Emmy interrupted quickly with a sharp glare into the back seat. "C'mon, Brooke. You _know_ she could use information like that if she's really against us." 

The two of them exchanged quick, pointed looks before Brooke nodded. "Okay, I can see your point there. Sorry, uh, Relle."

"It's okay," Camry replied easily as she got comfortable leaning against the miniature window behind her. Despite how short she was, her legs still were forced into maintaining a cramped position thanks to her close proximity to the back of the driver's seat. "No offense taken..."

The passengers lapsed into silence that was only broken by the gentle hum of the purring engine. Without any other cars on the streets, it only took roughly ten minutes to get from point A to point B. Along the way, Camry pressed her temple to the cool glass window and watched the city fly by. To her dismay, her line of sight was filled with unkempt yet dead plants draped from building sills and dark, empty windows. With only the gradual lightening of the overcast sky as dawn approached, the city was a dreary, downtrodden ghost town. 

The main shopping center-- a three-story structure built with tall windows, shiny silver walls, and bursting with life from the multitude of gardens spaced throughout the area-- came into view as they pulled over in the parking lot behind the mall. The loading dock for a department store was open and waiting to receive the latest shipment of supplies. Little did the survivors inside know, but this particular shipment carried two 'stowaways' along with it. 

It took a lot of wriggling and squirming, but Camry somehow managed to get out of the cramped truck without too much assistance-- or the use of her hands, which would have been helpful. C'est la vie. She couldn't say she was all that surprised when no one offered a hand to help her down. As soon as everyone was out, Emmy stuck to her side like a piece of ABC gum and kept her rifle at the ready, should she try any 'funny business' as the teen put it menacingly.

Tucker waved to her from the other truck and jogged over; someone must have loaned him a jacket, because he was bundled up in a dark grey marshmallow of a coat."Hey, you doin' okay?" he asked when he drew near. Emmy shot him a glare that he paid no mind to.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Camry assured him. The cuffs on her wrist clicked when she shifted her hands' position in front of her. "You're not gonna believe what I found out, though."

"You mean how the government's got everyone staying here because they're trying to figure out what to do with all of this?" he asked with a knowing look in his eye. "Dude told me the whole thing. It's crazy to think such a huge city's been whittled down to only a couple hundred people."

" _Agh!_ " Emmy groaned. "Great, that's exactly what I _didn't_ want you knowing!"

They decided not to comment on that. "Well, I guess now we've gotta learn what we can about the snakes' weaknesses, huh?" Camry suggested. "We can't go into this without some sort of plan."

"We should also look for Danny and Sam," Tuck reminded her in a low voice. "I'm starting to get worried about why I haven't seen any signs of them."

"The city's pretty big," she said in an attempt to be reassuring. "And I'll bet his powers were shorted out by the trip here, too. Maybe he's already back to normal."

"Sure, but would that really matter if the snakes got to them _before_ then?"

Cam grimaced at the thought. "Right... That's not a pretty picture, I'll give you that."

Brooke's voice called out to them from the deck of the loading bay. "Hey, c'mon and get inside, you two! We're taking you and your... _situation_ to the adults."

At that, and spurred forward by Emmy's prodding with her gun, the two of them made their over and hauled themselves up onto the deck. For Tucker, who had a few extra inches of height compared to Camry, it was a snap to put his hands up on the floor and lift himself up. Cam, on the other hand, was significantly shorter than Tuck-- not to mention _handcuffed_. She placed her hands flat on the surface and tried to lift herself up, but the awkwardness of the cuffs and her own diminutive stature quickly had her falling over backward. She would have had to start all over if a firm hand hadn't seized her upper arm and given her the extra pull she needed to get up there. 

"I gotcha," a jacket-less Dude laughed, then quickly released her arm when she was kneeling on the deck. Camry beamed up at him and was about to offer her gratitude when she spied something shiny and green in his other hand.

"Hey, wha-- When did you get my bag?" she asked while looking all around her as if her bag should have been right beside her. "I thought I had it with me just a second ago..."

"Sorry, they asked me to grab it," Dude apologized. "But don't worry, I'm not gonna go through your stuff or anything."

A look of relief passed over Camry's face, but then she recalled what all she was keeping in there: her undying Ghost Zone flower, a few photographs from different instances during her stay in different dimensions, her cell phone, and her Polaroid camera. 'What if-- no, I doubt it would work. But _maybe--!_ '

"Hey, it doesn't matter if you go through it or not. Knock yourself out, man," she said as casually as she could while rising to her feet and following Tucker inside. "Just, whatever you do, don't look inside the _secret pocket_."

Leaving him on that mysterious note, Camry caught up with her only other friend present and found herself at the back of a food court 'restaurant.' The newly acquired crates and boxes were stacked up in the back to be sorted and separated later; she skirted around them and allowed herself to be ushered out into the main dining area. The floor was made of smooth white tile, though it had seen better days under more industrial maintenance, and tall skylights let some of the hazy grey light from outside filter down sleepily into the mall. 

Tucker and Camry were told to take a seat at one of the tables, and they obeyed while cautiously eyeing the three guards stationed around them. Camry made sure to keep her hands in plain view, flat on the table's surface. Tucker lounged in his swiveling chair while resting his cheek on his knuckles and pressing his elbow into the table. "Whattaya think they're gonna do to us?" he wondered aloud.

"I dunno..." Camry murmured without looking up from staring at her gloved hands. "They don't seem like the kind of people who would do anything outright awful. To you, at least. You've got the whole 'being alive' thing going for you there."

"C'mon," he groaned in protest to that gloomy statement. "You'll be fine. I'll vouch for you, no matter what."

"Thanks, Tuck, but I'm not so sure that'll be enough," she whispered back. She idly laced her fingers together and tapped them against the smooth white tabletop. "We're total strangers to these people, remember?"

"Well, isn't that a sight," a distinctly Irish-accented voice cut in as the speaker drew nearer and got their attention. A small crowd comprised of weary adults and wary teens was heading toward the two newcomers and the trio of armed 'guards' watching over them. At the head of said crowd was a remarkably pale, middle-aged woman with her hair covered by a pastel blue hijab. Reddish freckles dusted the bridge of her nose and cheeks and were sprinkled here and there on her forehead, too. Her eyes sparkled with a yellow citrine color that looked warm even in the dismal lighting offered by the distant skylights. 

"Mum..." Camry couldn't help but whisper too quietly to be heard by anyone but herself. All of a sudden, the urge to run and hug the woman was overwhelmingly powerful in her heart.

"I've heard news of a girl ghost in our midst," Mrs. Mahadeo began while eyeing both Tucker and Camry, "and a boy who defends her despite being a ghost."

"They're really not _all_ bad," Tucker replied, putting out a hand with his palm faced up in a shrug. "Besides, we're technically here to, y'know, make all of _this_ stop." By "this" he meant the fact that all the survivors had to live in a mall, and he made his meaning clear by gesturing to the general area. 

"So I've heard," she confirmed. "But you must understand why we have to be cautious, especially of you." Mrs. Mahadeo looked right at Camry right then, and a strange look passed over her face as she took in the full sight of the girl's face. Was it recognition? "Relle" suddenly wanted to cover the scar on her cheek, but that would have been too conspicuous, so she refrained.

"I-I do understand," Camry answered softly before returning her gaze to her bound hands on the table. "It's why I let them put these on me in the first place."

"That's why I'm curious; how _exactly_ are you planning on helping us, as Brooke told me?" Mrs. Mahadeo inquired curiously. "And why should we trust you?"

A soft exhale followed by an almost wry chuckle left Camry's lips. "That's the problem: I have literally no proof about what I'm trying to tell you all." She rose to her feet and accidentally startled the three teens into raising their guns toward her; she put her hands up to show them she didn't mean any harm before turning to face her best friend's mother and the crowd she led. 

"A-All I can say for sure is that I want to get rid of the ghost that's driven you all out of your homes and separated you from your families. Well, _that_ , and that I'm not here to hurt any of you. I get that you've all been hurt by ghosts already, and that you've got no reason to believe anything coming out of my mouth right now, but... I'm on your side. We just need some information on a particular subject, and after that we'll leave to go do our job and be out of-- I-I mean, w-we'll leave you all alone. Right, Tuck?" 

Camry looked back over her shoulder at Tucker, who nodded in agreement. "Yeah, we just gotta find out what we can about somebody named Crom Cruach. Sound familiar to anyone?"

Low murmurs rose up from the crowd fruitlessly, but Mrs. Mahadeo's eyes widened at the mention of the ancient pagan deity. "C-Crom Cruach, you say? _Aye_... I suppose I would be the person to talk to about something like that, although I can't say I know all that much."

"Anything would help," Camry assured her. "Do you want to sit down to tell us?"

Seated at their table, Mrs. Mahadeo's proximity to Camry clearly made everyone else in the room nervous. 'If only I didn't glow or sound a little different... Maybe then this wouldn't be so hard for everyone' she thought to herself before tuning into what Mum was saying.

"Crom Cruach was a god from pagan mythology," she began solemnly, "a god from before Christianity came to Ireland. Of course, the only reason why it even sticks in my mind at _all_ is because it has to do with Saint Patrick. Sometimes, Crom was considered a fertility god, but I've heard more about human sacrifice than fertility. Saint Patrick ended the worship of Crom hundreds of years ago, though." Her gaze darted between her two rapt listeners quickly. "Why do you want to know all of this about an old, pagan god?"

"Did... Did you say ' _human sacrifice_ ' just now?" 'Relle' squeaked, her eyes wide with what could only be described as terror. 

"Mmhmm," Mrs. Mahadeo confirmed. "And what does that have to do with what's happening around the city?"

"It's-- oh god, Tuck, we have to-- we have to go. Right now. This is bad, this is-- this is so, so bad," Camry rambled almost too quickly to be considered coherent. 

"Wait, hang on a sec," Tucker cut in, putting a stop to her fretting. "All the people that got bit went into the lake, right? That's what we heard earlier."

"Yes, that's... that's right," Saoirse's mother said. Her voice caught when it was too full of emotion to continue right away. "No matter what we did to get them to stay, they always fought their way into the water and disappeared under its surface. I still hardly know what to think of it."

Camry's hands were near her face so she could chew on her finger nails anxiously. It took every ounce of self control she had in her to not jump out of her seat and bolt toward the nearest exit with Tucker in tow, whether he wanted to stay or not. 

"So, the lake's gotta be part of this," Tucker hypothesized. Well, at least _one_ of them was staying on track for the moment. "And we're also looking for a couple friends of ours. We got separated from them on our trip here. Their names are Danny and Sam; has anybody shown up here recently?"

Mrs. Mahadeo shook her head. "Nobody new has shown up except for the two of you. We can keep an eye out for them, but it's not safe to be outside of our barrier. Some of the zoo animals escaped a few months ago, and they've been running around Bailey Lake ever since."

Cam and Tuck exchanged knowing glances that said they now knew where that panther back at Oaktown Station had come from. Then Camry's eyebrows furrowed, and she looked at Mrs. Mahadeo with confusion evident on her face. "Wait, a barrier? Then how was I able to get in?"

For once, it was a guard that explained, and this guard just so happened to be Emmy. "We have to turn the barrier off to get the weapons the government sends in and out of the mall, so we let you in while it was down for a few minutes."

"That's... surprisingly trusting of you," Relle commented.

" _I_ would've preferred to leave you out there," Emmy couldn't resist shoehorning into her few extra seconds of attention.

"Naturally," Camry sighed. 'I am _so_ over this with her.'

"So, we've gotta go take care of this human sacrifice ghost, figure out how to bring back everyone who was bitten, and find Danny and Sam" Tucker said as he ticked the list items off on his fingers. There was one more part to their agenda-- the unspoken 'find Camry's body and bring her back to life' bit-- but that went unspoken for secret identity reasons. "Doesn't sound too hard. We've been through tough stuff like that before."

" _You_ have," Camry muttered.

"Mum!" a young girl called out as she dashed around the crowd of onlookers and came to a breathless stop a few feet away from the table. At the sound of her voice, a wistful expression crossed over Camry's face and filled her with hope. 

"What's wrong, Saoirse?" Mrs. Mahadeo asked immediately as she shot out of her seat and faced her only daughter.

Saoirse's flower-print hijab was thrown on haphazardly, leaving a few strands of dark red hair visible around her face. Whatever the reason behind her haste was, it really must have been an emergency. She wore a dark orange jacket over a cream-colored sweater, and her jeans had that brand new shade of blue that hinted at the fact that she'd gotten them from the mall she now lived in. Saoirse hadn't taken notice of either Camry or Tucker, the latter of which shot Camry a look she didn't see because she only had sphalerite eyes for her best friend. 

'Oh, thank god she's alright' was all she could think.

"Mum, the-- I was sorting the inventory, and the government sent us something labeled with a "Top Secret" sticker!" Saoirse rushed out excitedly. "I think it's a video!"

"Really?" her mother replied. "Alright, the adults will take a look at it." She turned back to Camry and Tucker with an apologetic look in her eyes. "I'm sorry, but if you would just stay until we finish with this, we'll let you go back to your plans."

As anxious as she was to get back to doing everything she needed to do as soon as possible, Saoirse's presence was doing a surprising amount to calm Camry's nerves. "S-Sure, I guess. Thanks for being so understanding, Mu-- Mrs. Mahadeo."

She left then, taking most of the crowd with her so the adults could watch whatever the government had to say. Saoirse remained behind along with a few of the teenagers that had nothing better to do for the time being. Her pink tourmaline eyes were locked onto Relle in an unbreakable stare that Cam only noticed as she watched Mrs. Mahadeo leave. 

"Who... Who _are_ you?" Saoirse asked, her tone sharp and somewhat angry. 

"H-Hey, I'm Relle," she answered with a small wave. Saoirse's stare was burning holes into her, and Camry found herself growing warm with embarrassment and uncertainty of what exactly to do. 

Tucker, on the other hand, was looking between the two girls with clear interest. 'So this is the girl she's got a crush on? I can see why.'

"Umm..." Relle hummed, her eyes looking all around except for into her best friend's angered face. "Are you... okay?"

"Why do you _look_ like her?" Saoirse whispered just loud enough for Camry to also hear. Before the blue-haired spirette could say anything, Saoirse had turned on her booted heel and stormed off, her hands clenched into fists at her sides. 

"... What was _that_ all about?" Tucker wondered out loud.

~

It wasn't until almost half an hour later that the two of them were released and the barrier was lowered just long enough to let them out of the mall. On her way out, Camry pressed and twisted at the cuffs around her wrists and was pleased to see them snap open, freeing her hands at long last. She made sure to deposit them flippantly into a stunned Emmy's hands as she breezed past.

Freezing winds bit at their noses as they were guided back the way they'd come and left on the same loading deck as before. Even at almost seven-thirty in the morning, the sky was dim and offered little in the way of sunlight. The second Camry had jumped down to the paved ground, a sparkling white wall appeared only inches behind her back and audibly crackled with energy. 

"So that's the barrier," Tucker commented thoughtfully. "It's white, not green... Okay, but about the handcuff thing. You're telling me you could've gotten out of those this _entire time?_ "

"I learned how to escape lots of things in the self-defense classes I took," was her calm reply. "I only kept them on to help make _them_ feel a little safer."

"I guess that makes sense," he allowed. "Okay, where to now?"

"Well, it's like you said earlier," Camry said, placing a gloved hand on her hip as they began to walk away from the loading area. "We've gotta find Danny and Sam, figure out a way to get rid of Crom, and bring back everyone he took. I'm also worried about running out of time, though; I still have to get my body back before my core fully develops."

"Right, right. Didn't Clockwork say something about recreating the circumstances?" Tucker recalled. 

"That's it! We'll go to my house!" she said brightly. "C'mon, it's not too far from here. And we can look for Danny and Sam along the way."

This time when she flicked a hand out toward the ground, a textbook-sized white film negative appeared about a foot off the pavement. "And that's _another_ power returned to me."

"What're we waiting for, then?" Tucker cheered. "Let's get going!"

" _¡Espérame!_ Wait a sec, you two!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, this one is a long chapter. It's supposed to be, though, cuz this is chapter THIRTY! Woohoo! I can hardly believe we've made it this far already.
> 
> Please leave a comment down below and kudos for this chapter, if you would! I'd love to hear your thoughts on the story so far~ WUVS!


	31. Chapter 31

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> RECAP:
> 
> " _¡Espérame!_ Wait a sec, you two!"

At the sound of Dude's voice Tucker and Camry whirled around to see him sprint through the barrier and take a running leap off the loading dock's edge. He flipped through the air for good measure-- it was a miracle his hat and hood stayed on-- and landed in a crouch before running to catch up with them. Dude looked out of breath, his face flushed with an indescribable emotion as he looked right at Relle. 

"Where-- _Where_ did you get the stuff in this bag?" he demanded to know while holding up said drawstring sack. "And _don't_ lie to me!"

His fierce tone pushed her into taking a step back and pressing her fists to her chest, but she didn't hesitate to tell him the truth. "It's all mine, Dude."

"But..." he said, and with both hands he wrenched the bag open so he could pull out her cell phone. " _This_ is your phone?" 

"Yeah, it's my phone," Relle answered softly.

"And _this_ \-- this is _your camera?_ " Her Polaroid was in his hand with its lens facing her. In its tiny black reflection, Camry caught a glimpse of a vague, glowing blue and gray shape that could only be her. 

With a gloved hand, she covered the lens and pushed his extended hand down a little to look up at him, right in the black opal eye. "Dude, it's _me_. I couldn't say anything with all those people around earlier, but _I'm Camry_."

They held each other's gazes for countless breaths as they searched for something different in the other's stare: Camry, for a spark of recognition, and Dude, for any trace of dishonesty. When he didn't find any, Camry saw exactly what she hoped for-- until he closed his eyes and sucked in a deep, slow breath. The Polaroid went into the bag, which then was set down on the ground carefully. As he moved, she began to apologize frantically, afraid that he was angry at her for lying to him.

"I-I'm _so sorry_ I didn't tell you-- I just _couldn't_ \-- I didn't mean to disappear-- please don't be mad, Dude, I swear I didn't mean for _any of this_ to happen--!"

"And that's where I stop you," he interrupted while holding up a hand like a stop sign, "because I just want to ask you one more thing so I _know_ it's not a trick. What happened after parent teacher conferences freshman year?"

Throughout this entire exchange, Tucker watched the two of them like a spectator at a tennis match. Cam frowned, her eyebrows knitting together as she fought through her memories to find the specific event Dude was referencing. After a few seconds, an epiphany struck, and a soft smile spread over her face. 

"Your 'mom' gave me a little bouquet as a thank you gift for helping you get your grades up."

And suddenly she was being folded into a bone-breaking embrace, encircled by the rough material of his poncho and pressed close to the slightly taller boy. 

"I can't believe it-- It's really _you!_ Cam, what _happened_ to you? Where'd you go?" he asked, pulling back just enough to make eye contact. "Why'd you stay away for so long? We were so freakin' _worried_ about you!"

"I--" she started to say, but then thought better of it and just yanked him down into another hug. "It's _such_ a long story, Dude. You wouldn't believe most of it."

"After what's happened around here lately, I think I'm pretty much ready to believe anything at this point," he laughed wryly before literally picking her up and swinging her side to side with delight. "I'm so happy to see you again, chica!"

"Same here, Dude," Camry giggled as she allowed herself to be swung around so recklessly. "I-- _Ack_ , don't drop me!" 

"Oh, c'mon," he chuckled with his eyes closed and a huge grin on, "when have I _ever_ dropped you?"

Camry rolled her eyes at that and was glad when her feet were reunited with the paved ground. Then Dude's hand was on her head, petting her hair curiously. "And your hair is _blue!_ It looks so rad on you, chica! Hardly recognized you with it... I guess that means we kinda match, in a way."

"What do you mean?" Cam asked him. A loud gasp escaped her when he whipped his hat off and pushed his hood back in one smooth motion to reveal his own hair. The sides had been shaved closer to his skull but were still a little on the shaggy side, and the rest in the middle had been allowed to grow out in a sort of floppy mohawk, all of which had been dyed a vibrant forest green and leaned toward his right side. A shiny gold hoop pierced the cartilage shell of his left ear to match the hoop around his eyebrow. "Oh my _gosh!_ You finally got to do your hair how you always said you wanted! Green looks _great_ on you, man!"

"¡Gracias!" he laughed. "Oh, hey, here's your bag." He bent down to scoop it up and deposited it in her waiting hands. "I knew you were totally trying to get me to look through it after you told me not to look in the 'secret pocket,' by the way."

"Especially since there wasn't a secret pocket in the first place," she snickered in answer to that.

Out of the corner of her eye, Camry saw Tucker shift his weight from one leg to the other and suddenly realized that he had just been standing there, ignored, the entire time she and Dude had been reuniting. Guilt washed over her, and she turned a little to accept him into the conversation. "I guess now someone else knows my secret identity, huh?"

"Welcome to the club," Tucker answered. He awkwardly held a hand out to shake, but Dude seized it with gusto and shook enthusiastically. 

"Hey again! I swear, you look _so_ familiar, Tucker," Dude couldn't help but comment as he released his hand. "This is gonna bug me until I figure out where I've seen you before."

Tucker opened his mouth to answer, but Camry beat him to it. "He was on the news back when all those guys appeared from out of nowhere outside of town!"

Dude slapped his hands together, and the sound echoed against the building. " _That's_ it! Wait, so does that mean you know what the deal was with so many people just popping up out of the blue?"

She and Tucker exchanged knowing glances before replying. "Maybe we should tell you about it on the way, Dude," Tucker suggested. "It's kind of a lot to process."

~~~

The day was a snowy December 2nd, 2014, and everything began in the high school library. Extra tables had needlessly been set up in anticipation for all the students who would be needing some extra tutoring before finals of second term, but the library was surprisingly empty. The only sounds were the occasional rustling of clothing, chairs creaking as their occupants boredly shifted around, and the intermittent flipping of pages as one of the only tutors left perused a fiction novel.

Camry sighed and looked up over the rim of her blue plastic reading glasses to take a gander at the other inhabitants. The librarian had left her post at the main desk to start putting returned books away on their shelves, and most of the other tutors had given up after half an hour of complete silence. 'They _do_ know they're not gonna get credit if they don't stay the full hour, right?' she thought, then returned to her book. 

The main doors opened with a soft clicking sound half a moment later, and two of the three student tutors looked up to see who it was. The boy had a chemistry textbook under one arm, much to their disappointment; that meant he wasn't there to be helped by them. 

Dude's opalescent eyes scanned the room, in search of the right placard set up on a desk, and found it in front of blonde girl with reading glasses perched on the bridge of her nose and a book in her hands. He'd seen her before, if memory served. Hadn't they been in the same introductory chem course during first term? 

Unfortunately, that was exactly where he was this term as well, which was why he had decided to give this free, student-led tutoring thing a try. Anything was better than getting held back twice in a row, right? So, on that determined note, he sped over to her table and waved to get her attention.

Camry squeaked and jumped in her seat, having been too wrapped up in her book to notice his initial entrance, and squished the open novel to her chest to calm her racing heart. Dude couldn't help but snigger at the sound she had made, and then covered it with a bright smile. "Hey, you're tutoring chem students, right?"

"Y-Yeah," she answered, her cheeks flushed a darker pink than they'd been a few seconds ago. "I'm Camry."

"I _thought_ so," he said. "We had class together last year."

"Oh, yeah," she remembered, and a faint smile took over her face. "You're Dude, the guy who couldn't sit in his chair like a normal person even once."

He beamed at her and nodded. "That's me alright." To prove her claim, he spun the chair adjacent to hers around and sat with the back against his chest and his legs spread wide. "Could you explain to me how you're supposed to go through these equations? Every time the teacher does it, I get super lost right away."

"Yeah, I can try," she answered while picking up her pencil.

That was the first time they'd ever really talked to one another, and with each tutoring session they joked together with more ease and learned more and more about each other. It was during one such session that Dude learned Camry had been dancing since she was only six years old, and in answer to that he proudly proclaimed that he was an avid fan and practitioner of parkour. 

"That's street gymnastics, right?" Camry recalled. "I think I've seen videos of that on WeTube."

"I've wanted to do a video of me doing parkour for the _longest_ time, but my twin sister never agrees to be my camera crew," he sighed mournfully.

"You have a sister?" the only child asked, her iolite eyes wide with surprise. "I had no idea! Does she go to our school?"

"Mmm, no," Dude hummed. "She's mostly deaf, so she goes to this special school on the other side of town."

Frigid rain pounded at the windows of the library, drowning out the smaller sounds inside and making the room feel a little cozier with its heating turned up to combat the mid-December chill. Camry tapped the eraser on her pencil against her lips twice as she thought of what to say to that. "So... if she's deaf, do you know sign language?"

"English _and_ Spanish," he confirmed while comically puffing his chest out with pride. "Sometimes when we're signing to each other, we flip back and forth between them without realizing what we're doing."

"That's so _cool!_ " Camry gasped in delight. "Could you teach me? I've _always_ wanted to learn sign language, but I'm too busy to take on any more language classes except for French right now."

"Sure, I guess I can teach you some sign language," Dude said with a grin. "But first I gotta pass chem this term, or I'm getting held back _again_." 

"Right, right, right," she said quickly, and flipped to the next page in his textbook. "Okay, so this part was really easy once I got the hang of it, so I'll show you how I made the different connections between this and this..."

Weeks filled with lessons and growing friendship passed by, and Saoirse soon met Dude as well and got to know him bit by bit since they shared a lower-level math class that term. Finals kicked their butts in tandem, but they all had winter break to look forward to. The last two days before the first weekend of break were sans classes because of parent-teacher conferences, much to every student's bittersweet happiness because it also meant their guardians were likely to fill their vacation with extra work if they didn't do well enough. 

Book in hand and glasses on, Camry tuned out the world of chatter going on around her as her parents discussed her average literature grades with her teacher a few tables away. As anxious as she was to know what they were saying about her, she also was too engrossed in this book series to pull herself away from it. That was exactly why she didn't see the Mexican comet of gratitude coming until Dude had veritably swept her off her feet in a joyous bear hug. 

"Cam, you'll _never_ guess what I got on my chem final!" he whooped, shaking her like a rag doll while she clung to her book desperately. 

"Wh-What, what did you get?" she stammered as he set her back down on the ground.

"73 percent!" Dude cheered with his hands in the air. "I passed the class!"

"That's so awesome!" Camry agreed, her eyes shining with happiness for him. "It looks like all that tutoring paid off in the end, huh?"

"It _so_ did," he said. "Thank you _so much_ for putting up with me for so long, Cam."

At his gratitude, her cheeks flushed dark pink of their own accord. "Aww, c'mon, it was nothing," she tried to say, but it came out a jumbled, bashful mess of choppy, half-spoken words.

Then Dude was pressing something into her free hand and saying in a rather rushed tone, "Also, my _mom_ wanted me to give these to you since you helped keep me from getting held back again so here no hetero m'kay?"

"Oh, wow," she whispered, staring incredulously at the sight of the little bundle of various flowers. Wrapped in white paper were white daisies, purple-blue irises, pale pink azaleas, and the rather interesting-looking anthurium flower. "Awww, Dude!" she squealed, pressing the bundle close and beaming at the slightly taller boy. "You-- Your mom didn't have to do this! I had a lot of fun tutoring you."

"Same," Dude laughed, one hand on the back of his neck. "But still, she wanted you to have those."

"Tell her I say 'thank you,' okay?"

"I will! Do you wanna hang out over the break? I can start teaching you sign language, and maybe even a little parkour if you're still interested."

"Definitely!"

~~~

"-- and _that's_ why Tucker showed up in our dimension a few years ago," Camry finished triumphantly, much to Dude's stunned silence. 

The walk so far had lasted just over a full hour and took them past countless dark stores, barren parks, and an empty fenced-in area directly beneath a floating acre the size of a university football stadium. The entire time they traveled, Tucker and Camry filled Dude in on the things he had missed. 

"So... _Espere_ \-- wait a second. Let me try to get this straight. _You_ ," He pointed at Tucker, "are from an alternate dimension, and _you_ ," he shifted his aim to Camry, "ended up there because your _soul_ went there after a giant snake attacked you? And _that's_ why you disappeared for so long?"

Tucker had to cringe at the mention of snakes before answering. "Yeah, pretty much."

"But there's a chance I can come back to life!" Camry jumped in cheerfully. "I just have to find my body, and then try and 'recreate the circumstances of how I was separated from it,' or something like that. Clockwork wasn't very clear about it, was he..." 

Despite how this particular fact filled her with hope, it had a rather opposing effect on Dude. "Come _back_ to life? Well, I guess it's stupid of me to think otherwise, but... it just kinda sank in that you're _dead?_ "

"Well... I'm a ghost," she explained softly. "So, like, kinda. Pretty much? Yeah. But not for long. That's why we're going back to my house, since that's where I got spliced. Maybe we'll even find a clue about Crom and how to beat him!" 

He frowned in thought, a sorrowful look crossing his features, before Dude smiled and nodded in agreement. "Yeah, maybe! Good thing we're almost there."

Walking down the sidewalk side by side by side, the trio of teens talked and talked and talked on their way through town. It wasn't long until they turned a corner and found themselves in view of multi-story buildings with not much space between them; every other one was narrow while the ones between those were much wider. The odd, contrasting look gave the entire street an unreal effect that reminded Tucker of funhouse mirrors at carnivals. 

"Are we almost there?" Tucker groaned as his overworked feet ached in their boots. 

"Just a couple more streets," Cam assured him with a faint smirk. "You can make it, Tuck!"

At some point during their conversations, Danny and Sam just so happened to be mentioned and Camry sucked in a shocked breath. "We should've been doing something to look for them this whole time! Do you think he can fly yet, Tucker? What if I shoot a signal into the sky for them to see, or something?"

"Who're you talking about, exactly?" Dude asked them, lifting his pierced eyebrow out of curiosity. 

"My friends," Tucker supplied, "and Danny is half-ghost, like Camry will be if we can get her back to her body in time. It probably wouldn't hurt to try a flare or something."

"Oh, right, you explained that earlier," Dude recalled with his arms folded over his chest. "So, like, how exactly would we go about getting her body and her soul fused together again? Or is this just a ghost thing she can do?"

"I'm right here," she sighed from a few paces away. "And I don't actually know. I already overshadowed... _somebody_ before, so maybe that's pretty much all I'll need to do in order to be back in my own body. What I do know is that I have no idea where my body is."

Camry squared her shoulders and took a few more steps away from the two of them for good measure. "Let's hope I can do this by now... _Ha!_ "

Heat gathered in her fist as she punched it toward the sky, and to her delight a streak of fire billowed out and up into the clouds high, high above their heads. Dude's jaw dropped at her display of power while Tucker merely watched it arc into the open air like a shooting star traveling across the night sky. As it disappeared into the overcast clouds, they lit up with an orange glow that quickly faded as it cooled.

" _What_ was _that?_ " Dude exclaimed, throwing his arms up in the air and pointing at the comet she'd released into the sky. 

Camry turned to face him and couldn't help the faint orange glow of her bashful blush taking over her cheeks. "Oh, just, y'know... My ghost powers."

"Okay, well, _that's_ amazing. Is that what going into shock feels like?"

" _Nooo_ , don't go into shock!"

"Guys, wait," Tucker spoke up sharply to shush the two friends. "Do you hear that?"

... _Pwing~ Pwing~ Pwing~_

"Oh! Haha, sorry, that's my phone," Dude realized as he pulled it from his back pocket and looked at the lit-up screen. "Hey, it's Saoirse! Want me to tell her the good news that you're back, Cam?"

Camry frowned in answer to that and, after a heartbeat, shook her head 'no' slowly. "I think I want to explain it to her in person."

"Makes sense," he agreed. "Right now, she's just wondering where I am. Hmmm... What do you think I should tell her?"

"Tell her you left something back at the station, maybe?" she suggested. As they talked, Tucker kept an eye on the sky for any reply from Danny or Sam. Sam had her Wrist Ray on her, so she certainly wasn't defenseless, and as long as Danny's powers had begun to return just as Camry's had then they were probably well taken care of.

Dude's hum was high-pitched with uncertainty. "I dunno... I shouldn't _lie_ to her. She's our best friend."

"I know, but what _can_ you tell her?" Camry pointed out rhetorically. "I kinda sorta interacted with her earlier today as Relle, and something tells me she's not my biggest fan at the moment."

"Why?" he asked curiously. 

"I dunno, Dude," she sighed in annoyance. "Maybe because I vaguely look like myself? She seemed to kinda recognize me a little, but she didn't seem to like that very much."

" _Dios mío_ , this is more complicated than it has to be!" Dude groaned loudly as he threw his head back. "I'll just tell her I needed to grab something I left behind. Maybe she won't ask too many questions."

The cryptic message was sent, and the walk back to Camry's house resumed while the conversation didn't. With their relative silence came the creeping feeling of _wrongness_ all around the three of them. They were in a neighborhood with dozens upon dozens of nice-looking houses! How was it possible that a street could be this quiet?

They knew the answer, and it left revolting aches in the pit of their stomachs. 

Finally, after turning a few more corners and passing countless dead yards filled with the remnants of life that had all too suddenly been put on pause, a particular front door came into view. This door belonged to one of the narrow-fronted houses and was criss-crossed with bright white tape that read "DO NOT ENTER-- CRIME SCENE" over and over. Camry's faux heart seized at the sight of her own front door decorated with the unfamiliar tape, and she predictably pressed her fists against her chest. Try as she did to look away, her eyes were glued to the picture before her. 

Neither boy noticed her discomfort until she had stopped walking entirely and they were a few paces ahead. Dude looked back over his shoulder out of concern and was about to ask if she was alright when she took off in a sprint, darting between them at a dizzying speed that left them both blinking back afterimages of blue hair and monochrome clothes. "Cam-- Wait a sec!" he yelled after her as he and Tucker both picked up the pace. 

She didn't look at them when they rejoined her side on her front step; her eyes were focused solely on the crime scene tape she was intent on tearing off until none remained. The scraps she flung behind her smoked and had begun to melt when they left her shaking hands. Then Camry tried the doorknob and found it to be locked-- likely electronically sealed as per the house's interface and high-end security system. Her palm and fingers left a dark scorch mark on the dull metal handle when she pulled away.

"Cam, hey, calm down!" Dude called out. When he went to put a hand on her shoulder, he pulled back immediately as a result of the intense heat coming off her in waves. "Ouch..."

Camry gasped at her friend's pain and forced her hands to be still on the doorknob. "Sorry... Are you okay?"

"Are _you?_ " he shot back. "Look, I know this has gotta be a lot to take in, but losing your head isn't gonna get you anywhere."

Her eyes left his face to stare at the door she was trying so hard to break down. This was _her_ front door. The fact that she had to even break in at all weighed heavily on her conscience and made her heart clench. "Sorry, Dude... You're right. I dunno what came over me."

"Probably that negative feedback thing again," Tucker suggested. "Here, if Dude looks for a way in while you shoot another flare into the sky, I'll keep an eye out for Danny and Sam."

Cam nodded mutely at that, and Dude let his hand linger on her warm shoulder for a few extra seconds before jogging around the corner of the building. Something told him that he already knew exactly how he was going to get in. Meanwhile, Camry stood on the front steps and punched another shot of fire into the sky. As the flames dissipated, a black-and-white shape became apparent against the backdrop of solid grey clouds, and it was getting larger. 

"I think that's them!" she gasped to Tucker before waving both hands in the air as high as she could reach. " _Heyyy! Over heeere!_ " He copied her, a relieved grin stretching his lips as his two best friends' silhouettes became more and more distinct. 

Then they were alighting on the sidewalk in front of Camry's house and running up to them. "You guys are okay!" Danny said, clearly just as relieved as they were to see their friends safe. His white hair was tousled by the flight, as was Sam's black bob and ponytail. 

"Where'd you two end up?" Tucker asked, and was answered by Sam pointing an index finger up at a floating acre that was almost invisible because it was so far away. "Oh, no way! We were worried you guys might've gotten stuck up high or something!"

"Did your powers short out, too?" Danny asked Camry, who nodded with a peeved expression. "Yeah, kinda figured. We couldn't find a way down until I was able to fly again, so we've been stuck up there until, like, hour ago."

"What did we miss?" Sam asked, though her question was mostly directed at Tucker. He was just about to start the run-down of the past few hours' events when the front door clicked loudly and swung open to reveal a theatrically bowing Dude.

"And _that's_ how it's done," he stated victoriously. "Oh, hey, when did everybody double out here?"

"How did you get _in?_ " Camry had to ask. 

"I scaled the wall up to your window," he explained. "Thank god it wasn't locked! But, uh, it's not a pretty sight in here. Fair warning."

"What do you mean...?" she asked warily before dashing up the front steps and sliding by her best friend. Her pace quickened as she took in the sight of the entryway, the living room, the hallway, and finally the kitchen.

Furniture, like the coffee table and entertainment center, was missing from the family room, and what remained was covered in clear plastic sheets to protect them from dust and weathering. Family photos and mementos on the walls had been taken down, giving the hallway a barren atmosphere. Across the doorway separating the hallway from the kitchen, more white tape had been strung up to dissuade people from interfering with the crime scene; she blasted it aside with a well-placed karate chop of a fire-covered hand.

Up until that moment, the situation escalating around her hadn't seemed exactly as serious as it really was. That's why, with one foot over the threshold and braced by the doorway she leaned heavily against, Camry's world sharpened into far too bright clarity and came crashing down around her ears. 

This was _really_ happening.

Her parents were gone.

Her life as she once knew it was never coming back.

Everything-- _everything_ \-- hinged on her future success or catastrophic failure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *low whistle* Well, _that_ was a little dramatic, huh? 
> 
> But now the group of four has grown to five! I absolutely love Dude, I swear to god, and I can't wait to write him being the absolute sweetheart and ray of sunshine that he is. Stay tuned for the next chapter, and I hope you'll leave lots of nice comments down below!


	32. Chapter 32

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> RECAP:
> 
> Her parents were gone.
> 
> Her life as she once knew it was never coming back.
> 
> Everything-- _everything_ \-- hinged on her future success or catastrophic failure.

A gentle hand fell on Camry's shoulder, grounding her and offering comfort silently. It wasn't until she had the steadiness of Dude's presence beside her that she was able to realize she was shaking. 

The once designer kitchen was a veritable disaster, with the stove warped beyond recognition by a heat that must have been impossibly intense. Black singe marks crawled up what was left of the wooden counter directly across from the oven. Two of the three dangling light fixtures above said counter had shattered, and the polished wood flooring was too scuffed and charred to ever be salvaged.

Camry recalled the door to the oven being blown off its hinges, but when she looked around the room, it appeared that it had been taken away as evidence because it was nowhere to be found. White and yellow plastic markers had been left behind either as indicators of scorch mark patterns or hypothetical scenario evidence. 

"It... kinda looks like they just left in the middle of their investigation," Sam noted as she, Tucker, and Danny all filed past Camry and into the kitchen. 

"No kidding," Danny agreed. "I wonder what happened..."

"I'll bet they got bitten," Dude spoke up, "and disappeared like everyone else." He turned to Camry then and asked softly if she wanted to go in a little further, to which she nodded after a moment of numb thought. "'Kay. C'mon, let's go check this out."

"My mom is gonna be _sooo_ mad," she muttered, her gaze unblinking in order to take in every part of the scene. 

"Bitten?" Danny echoed. 

"Yeah, the ghost that attacked Camry has been the one behind everyone disappearing," Tucker supplied matter-of-factly. "There were these little green snakes that bit almost _everyone_ in town, and after that they just walked into the lake and vanished!"

Dude's pocket buzzed with the text notification sound again, and when he checked it a frown pulled at his lips. "Wait... What?" he murmured, opening the text all the way to read everything. "Be back before dinner... the government... _what?_ "

"What's the matter?" Camry asked. She had just gotten through reading the first line of the text from Saoirse when Danny, who stood in front of the busted oven, let out a startled sound and flew into a crouch. His head, shoulders, and arms disappeared inside the oven, much to Camry's unease as it reminded her all too well of how she had gotten into this predicament in the first place. "Danny? What is it?"

"It's... It _can't_ be," he said, his words echoing oddly in the small space he'd stuck himself into. When he backed out and stood up straight again, he had a cylinder between his hands. The scorch marks all over it disguised the fact that it had once been a much lighter color, but they hadn't gotten rid of the metallic designs on the outside completely. He flipped it over to examine the bottom and couldn't help how his acid green eyes grew impossibly wide. 

Stamped into the metal were six letters followed by two numbers: FENTON-- 07.

"This is a _Fenton_ Thermos!" Danny yelled before wrenching the cap off to peer inside. The smooth white lining was exactly like the one in the Thermos on his hip-- and he would know, seeing how he had gotten all too acquainted with it every time he had accidentally been sucked inside. "How did a one of our Thermoses end up in your dimension?"

"I-- Oh my god! That's the part my dad used to fix the oven!" Camry realized as she stabbed an index finger at the Thermos in Danny's hands. "He wanted to do it himself instead of call a mechanic, a-and Mom needed the oven to start the prep for a party she and my dad were going to!"

"So, Crom was inside the Thermos," Tucker said, a thoughtful hand on his chin. "And he escaped when you opened the oven."

"But how did it _get_ here?" Sam asked rhetorically. 

"I have no idea! It says on the bottom that this is the seventh prototype, but I don't think we've even made a _fourth_ one yet," Danny said. "I wonder if Clockwork knows anything about this..."

Camry went up to them and silently asked if she could see the Thermos, which Danny handed over without protest. She flipped it around to look at the serial number on the bottom of the Thermos. Some distant part of her brain registered Dude getting another text from Saoirse, but she paid it no mind. "Fenton, number seven. So, it's from the future? _Your_ future?"

"It's gotta be," he agreed. "I just... I don't understand what's going on right now. Do we come back here in the future or--?"

"Uh, guys?" Dude spoke up suddenly, his tone growing urgent with panic. "We have a problem...!"

"What is it?" Danny asked him quickly. 

"I just got a text from Saoirse, and she says the government's planning on dropping an anti-ghost bomb on the quarantine zone to get rid of all the snakes!" 

" _What?_ " the four of them shrieked in unison, and Camry darted over to look at his phone for herself.

"Be back before dinner, top secret government video... 'Going to wipe out the ghosts once and for all?' Crap!" 

"I know!" Dude answered just as loudly. " _You're_ a ghost! And _you're_ a ghost-- I think," he added with a gesture to Danny. "Hey, I'm Dude, by the way."

"Danny Phantom," Danny answered. "And this is Sam." She lifted her chin in greeting.

"Okay, just-- we can figure this out," Tucker stepped in to be the voice of calm rationale. "If we can beat Crom and send him back to-- I dunno, Clockwork, maybe?-- then there won't be any reason for the feds to drop a ghost bomb on the city."

"And if I get back to my body, I can hide the fact that I'll be part ghost," Cam added. "Although..." Her gaze wandered around the singed kitchen forlornly. "Something tells me that 'recreating the circumstances' isn't going to involve the exact place where I died. Maybe we should leave and head over to the lake to look for Crom."

"That's not a bad idea," Danny agreed. "You wanna carry the Thermos in your backpack, Cam?"

Her drawstring bag had been fitted onto her back, so she swung it around and pulled her Polaroid out to make some extra room. "Sure, why not? Maybe it'll come in handy later."

The camera's strap went around her neck, and the familiar weight sitting against her body was more of a comfort than she consciously realized. As they began to make their way toward the front door, she shot a flickering glance at the back of the house where the stairs to the second floor-- and, more specifically, her bedroom-- began. As much as she wanted to go up there and just curl up under her covers, her intuition advised against it. Would the sight of her forsaken safe space pull her into a meltdown of sorrow and rage? Was her bed still even _up_ there? These were questions she didn't really want answered, for her own sake.

"So, what do your parents even do?" Sam inquired as Camry, the last one to leave and therefore the one to close the door behind them, locked her front door and shut it. "Your kitchen looked really fancy, even if it was a little... charred."

"Oh, my mom's a chef with her own cooking shows on TV," Camry answered about as nonchalantly as someone revealing their favorite ice cream flavor. "And my dad's a freelance photographer, but he's worked with _National Geographic_ a bunch of times. He's actually the one who gave me this Polaroid. It's a little like his first one." In a little cluster, not unlike penguins traveling across the antarctic, they began their walk toward Bailey Lake.

"Your mom's on _TV?_ " Danny gasped. 

"Wait, does that mean you're filthy stinkin' _rich?_ " Tucker asked in pretty much the exact same tone as Danny's.

"Yes, and, uh, kind of?" she answered awkwardly. "Not, like, _extravagantly_. Why?"

"'Cause you never told us!" Tuck said. 

"Well, I don't really like telling people about it if I can help it," Cam explained with her arms drawn in close to her torso. "I already have to deal with people who already know about it, and it's just so tedious."

"I can _weirdly relate_ ," Sam sighed, both hands on her hips. 

~

"Is something the matter, hon?" 

Saoirse startled at her mother's voice breaking through her fixation on her dormant cell phone. "Oh! Mum, hi."

Eleanor Mahadeo smiled down at her daughter and sat on her heels next to her. "Daydreaming again?"

"No..." Saoirse hummed anxiously for a second, and then checked her phone needlessly for a reply she knew she wasn't going to see. "I just-- I've been texting Dude, but he's taking so long to reply that I'm starting to get worried."

"Oh, speaking of whom, I was looking for him earlier," Eleanor remembered. "I could have used his help with sorting the new shipment. Where did he go?"

"That's just it, Mum. I don't know!" Saoirse groaned. "I asked, but he just said he was going to get something he left behind. This isn't like him..."

"Well, we both know your friend has _far_ too much energy to be cooped up in here, even if the mall _is_ rather large," she pointed out with a mirthful smile on her face. "Did you at least tell him about what the video said? He needs to be back here before they send it."

"I told him," Saoirse assured her mother. "Still waiting for a reply... Maybe I should call."

Mrs. Mahadeo shook her head at that. "I know you're worried about him, but if you sent a text recently it should be alright to wait a few extra minutes. Be patient, hon. If Dude is busy with something right now, he'll reply soon."

On that note, she rose to her feet and mentioned something about putting Saoirse's younger brothers to work on something as she walked away. Saoirse watched her go and frowned, idly adjusting the length of her hijab that ran under her chin. 'But I've _been_ waiting for a reply. What could be taking so long...? He's just grabbing something from the Tram station, right? I'm calling him anyway.'

She used her thumb to navigate to his contact information and pressed the button to call his phone. As it rang once, twice, thrice, and even four times, her nerves began to tighten like piano strings. "C'mon, Dude, pick _up_...!"

Finally, halfway through the fifth ring, a harsh click cut through and an out of breath voice called out a little too loudly, "Saoirse, what's up?"

"Dude, are you alright?" she asked quickly, leaning forward as she talked. "I've been texting you and getting no response."

"Oh, uh, yeah, sorry about that!" he yelled. "Been kinda-- _ack!_ \-- kinda busy at the moment. Great timing, though! Could you get somebody to lower the barrier in maybe thirty seconds?"

Now that she had the chance to listen for it, other voices were frantically calling to one another in the background of his side of the call, and multiple pairs of footsteps slapped at concrete in rapid succession. A sound not unlike a blaster firing pushed her pulse into overdrive, and Saoirse was on her feet a split second after. "What's going on? Dude, answer me!"

"It's hard to run and talk on the phone at the same time!" he rebutted, his voice growing louder and quieter over and over again as if he were pumping his arms at his sides. "We're almost at Delta Pin, Seersh, and we've got a whole swarm of snakes on our tails! _¡Prisa!_ " 

"Okay, okay-- just hold on!" she exclaimed, then took off from the clothing store that had more or less become her remaining family's new home since their move to Delta Pin. Her ballet flats threatened to fall off her feet as she ran down the center walkway of the shopping center and found herself in front of the dried up fountain that sat smack dab in the middle of the mall. On one of its fancy tiers sat a boxy device with buttons and dials on it, all of which were slowly flashing to show the barrier was working properly. 

One of the other survivors noticed her reaching for it and called out, "Hey, what're you doing with that?" while stalking over quickly. "The barrier's not supposed to come down since we got everything in already!"

"Dude, say when!" Saoirse yelled into her phone, ignoring the looks and words she was receiving from everyone else coming closer. Even the children knew not to touch the barrier box as it was their only real defense against the hordes of snakes waiting to feast on them all. 

" _When!_ " he cried out, and Saoirse flipped the switch that made all the blinking lights flicker out. Because they were constantly guarded by the shield, a faint white glow was always present and visible through the windows and skylights of the building, but now they were plunged into a far too grey haze of overcast melancholy. 

Outside, near the front entrance to Delta Pin, the five teens were backed up against the barrier as hundreds, if not thousands, of glowing green snakes closed the distance between them. While only about as long as a grown man's forearm, the snakes bared their sharp fangs and let them shine under the white light of the barrier. 

"Get inside!" Danny and Camry yelled in perfect unison while taking up protective stances in front of their human friends. They fired off blast after blast of fire, ice, and green plasma to keep the monsters from advancing, but the reptilian army stretched back throughout most of the plus-sized parking lot while more were still on their way. 

" _C'mon, Saoirse!_ " Dude fretted as he grabbed an arm of Tucker's and Sam's to pull them into the protective circle. Sam was still firing away with her Wrist Ray, picking off serpents one at a time. The overall effect was minimal, but the effort was nevertheless appreciated. 

The tidal wave was looming closer, threatening to crush them all instantly, when the barrier vanished and Danny seized the back of Camry's silk shirt to drag her in after him only a second before the shield reappeared. She had been too wrapped up in being the ghostly equivalent of a human flamethrower to take notice of how she was finally able to get to safety with the rest of her friends. One final jet of fire took care of the wiggly stragglers that had managed to make it inside before the barrier shut the rest out.

Dude, Tucker, Sam, Danny, and Camry all collapsed to the ground, spent from their run and gasping for air. Laying supine against the hard concrete, Dude couldn't stop a light laugh from bubbling up and out of his chest. "What-- _haha_ \-- what _was_ that?"

"Beats me, dude," Danny wheezed. "I swear, I am _never_ running like that again. Ouch...!" A stitch in his side throbbed, though he was actually the least out of breath because he had flown part of the way to Delta Pin. 

"But we made it," Sam pointed out. As odd as it was for the goth girl to look on the bright side, she was right and proudly knew it, too. Just beyond the circumference of their safety, the snakes piled on top of one another in a futile bid to find a way in.

A crowd had inevitably begun to gather near all the commotion, but no one really wanted to go outside and talk to the five teens that were still catching their breath. Then Saoirse broke free of the audience to run up to Dude and lean over him. Her pink tourmaline eyes were wide with worry and fear. "Dude, what _happened?_ Are you alright?"

" _Yep_ ," he replied with a sigh, drawing out the single syllable to a comical length. "We were on our way to-- to the lake and, I dunno, ran about a _dozen_ blocks to get here when the snakes just came outta _nowhere_." 

"But--" she stammered, turning her gaze to the enormous mass of writhing, squirming green snakes still tried to find a way past the barrier. Thousands upon thousands of the ghostly creatures stared in at all the potential prey just barely out of reach. "That's impossible! You would've been bitten for sure!"

Dude simply shrugged at that and got to his feet to dust off the back of his poncho and butt. "Not if I have anything to say about it. If it weren't for Danny and Ca-- _Relle_ , we totally would've been toast, though." He used a thumb to gesture back at the other four teens, all of whom had begun to follow his example and struggle to get up. 

"It's that ghost girl from before," a voice called out over the general hubbub of the crowd threatening to spill outside. 

Camry, or Relle as she was known by many at that point, accepted Tucker's offered hand up and found herself making eye contact with a rather displeased-looking Saoirse. The way she glowered at Cam made her feel small and guilty for things she never did. Her throat was suddenly dry for reasons other than her volcanic core. "Uhh--?" 

The urge to cough lurched up into her throat unexpectedly, bringing with it the taste of ash and smoke. Okay, so maybe her throat was dry thanks to her core. One of Camry's hands flew up to cover her mouth as she grimaced and turned away from her friends. One mighty swallow was all it took to force down the threatening upheaval, but experience told her she would need to let it out sometime in the next few minutes or her temperature would rise and take the room's along with it. 

Some of the crowd wandered over, trepidation clear on their faces, to try and offer help to the new arrivals. A chorus of various "Are you alright?" "I've never seen you around here before," and other such small talk starters permeated the air. 

"Back so soon, huh?" Saoirse asked suddenly, her tone sharp and hostile. Relle flinched at her words and tapped the side of her fist against her thigh. "I thought you left to go take care of the ghost in the lake."

"W-We were, and, uhm," she stuttered, her cheeks flaring up bright red-orange. "W-W-We just w-weren't expecting s-so... so many of them. All at once."

"So you're not really any help," Saoirse summarized as she folded her jacket-covered arms over her chest. "Figures. C'mon, Dude, I wanna talk to you."

She turned away, brisk footsteps carrying her back inside as Dude reluctantly trailed after her. He shot a look over his shoulder at Camry and suddenly beamed as if an idea had just popped into his brain. Dude ran back and seized her hand, dragging her after him without asking for her input on the matter. The duo received hundreds of piercing, disapproving stares and confused mutterings, but he didn't pay them any mind whatsoever. 

Camry, on the other hand, couldn't help but keep her head down and wish she could just vanish from their sight-- oh, wait, she _could_. That's exactly what she did, as a matter of fact, and followed after Dude with a little more optimism from then on. Danny, Tucker, and Sam being on their own flashed through an ignored part of the back of her mind. In the span of a few moments, they found themselves in front of the classy, high-end music store Saoirse was about to disappear inside of. 

"Hey, what'd you wanna talk about?" Dude asked as suavely as he could while holding the hand of an invisible ghost. 

"In here," Saoirse answered, beckoning for him to follow. He didn't let go, and Camry found herself in the odd position of a semi-willing eavesdropper. 

Inside the store were pianos of various sizes and types, musical instruments in cases and on racks and shelves, and rows upon rows of sheet music books, movie soundtracks, and self-help books. At the back of the store was a soundproof room with a baby grand piano, still glossy and well-tuned thanks to Saoirse's loving upkeep. Evidence of her repeated visits to this room lay scattered about in the form of discarded sheet music, various wrappers she was too lazy to pick up and throw away, and even a pillow and blanket crumpled up in a heap in a corner. Dude made sure Camry was all the way inside before reaching back around her to shut the door, blocking the three of them inside where no one would be able to hear their conversation.

"Is everything okay?" Dude began, worry heavy in his tone. "You're acting kinda weird, Seersh."

" _I'm_ acting weird?" she shot back, incredulous at his insinuation. "Dude, what the heck is going on with _you?_ You _never_ disappear like that! And what were you doing with that _ghost?_ Were the two of you together this whole morning or something?"

His hand left Relle's so he could indignantly cross his arms. "Does it _matter_ where I was or who I was with?"

"Uh, _yeah, kinda_ ," Saoirse snapped. "Dude, we're in a _quarantine zone_ with evil ghost snakes and wild zoo animals running loose all over town! The _least_ you could do is let me know I don't need to worry about you. We already lost--"

Her voice choked up, and with tears brimming in her eyes Saoirse turned toward the piano and sat down on the bench with a bit more force than necessary. Dude was at her side in an instant, laying a comforting hand on her shoulder. Saoirse reached up to place her hand over his but kept her head lowered. "I know, Seersh. Lo siento," Dude apologized. "But... speaking of who we already lost--"

"You _know_ I don't wanna talk about that subject," Saoirse objected in a watery voice. "Especially after that ghost showed up today."

"Oh? Why especially because of her?" With her head down, Saoirse missed seeing the wink Dude aimed near the closed door. 

She didn't answer at first, instead choosing to lift up the cover over the piano keys and gently rest her fingers on them without pressing down. After taking in a deep breath and letting it out slowly through her parted lips, a soft melody began to be coaxed out of the piano. It seeped into every corner of the soundproof room and left an impression on Camry's invisible soul. A distant corner of her mind wondered if this was the song her best friend played at her memorial service. 

"You've seen what-- _who_ \-- she vaguely looks like," Saoirse said after a few measures of music. "And I saw that Polaroid camera around her neck this time. I just-- I can't _not_ think about _her_ when I see that ghost, and it makes me _so mad_ that--" The song cut off as her fingers froze to curl up into clenched fists an inch above the black and white keys. Both Camry and Dude expected her to bang them against the piano, but Dude's presence was enough of a deterrent that she simply unfurled them and let them settle back into their last positions. 

"I know, Seersh," he sympathized. "But, uh, there's a reason why Relle looks so much like Camry."

"What do you mean?" Saoirse asked without looking at him, returning to her song as smoothly as running water pouring over a waterfall. 

"So... promise me you won't freak out?" Dude tried, and this time Saoirse raised an eyebrow up at him and paused her piano-playing once more.

"Dude, you're _still_ acting strange. What's going on?" she demanded to know. "What are you not telling me?"

"So, uh, Cam? Maybe wanna reveal yourself already?" he called out to the general area, and after a few tense seconds a third person materialized against the closed door. Camry leaned back on it, her folded hands cushioning her rear and one booted foot put a little farther forward than the other. Despite the way her posture was nothing short of casual, her tense muscles and anxious expression screamed the exact opposite.

"Hey, so yeah, guess what? You'll _never_ guess who I ran into today," Dude laughed awkwardly in an attempt to be as smooth as possible.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, Dude, you sweet summer child. You do my jaded soul some good.
> 
> Hurray! Another update! I know I warned you in the description of this story beforehand, but I do apologize for the inconsistency in my updates. I'll try to be a little more prompt about posting these.
> 
> Here's a link to the song I was listening to/picturing for what Saoirse plays on the piano: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3sJ79C1Zyo 
> 
> I hope you guys had a great Halloween! Thanks for reading!


	33. Chapter 33

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Definitely listen to the song I've linked here for you, okay? It is SO PERFECT for this chapter's theme and Camry and Saoirse's current (not to mention rocky) relationship: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29XGlYUlqfA

Saoirse and Camry's mutual stares were unbroken and silent, heavy with unsaid words and one-sided yearning. Camry's gloved hands habitually moved to grasp her Polaroid, a motion that did not go unnoticed by Saoirse's hardened gaze. 

"Saoirse," Camry began to say only to be cut off abruptly.

"Get out," Saoirse snapped, rising to her feet and leaning forward with her fingers pressing down discordant keys. "How _dare_ you."

"W-Wait, Saoirse, let me explain," Camry objected while pushing off the door and taking a step forward. Her hands went out to her sides, palms faced up in a pleading manner. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you right away, but I couldn't with all the other people around--"

"I said _get out!_ " she shrieked, banging her hands into the piano and filling the room with a horrible, jarring sound. "How _dare_ you look even _remotely_ like her! I didn't endure months and months of heartbreak to finally accept that she was gone just for _you_ to come waltzing in and bring it all back!"

"But I _am_ Camry!" said the blue-haired ghost. "Really! If you'd just let me talk, I can explain everything!"

"I don't want to hear _anything_ you have to say! I would so much rather know my best friend were peacefully at rest than stuck as an undead _monster!_ " Saoirse snapped before whirling on Dude, who had been watching all this shouting and trying to figure out what to do to calm down the situation. "Dude, you can't let this ghost trick you into thinking she's Camry! She almost got you killed just a few minutes ago with that giant horde of snakes! I'll bet she's one of them, too."

"I'm _not_ \--!" Camry tearfully tried to insist. Her core seized at the word 'monster' and made her stomach churn with horror. Was this what her best friend really thought of her now? A monster? 

"Alright, _¡basta!_ " Dude yelled over the top of both of them. Silence settled heavily in the soundproof room, filling their hearts with dread. "You both need to calm down a little, alright? _Dios mío_...! First of all, Saoirse, I think I can tell for myself whether someone's tricking me or not. I am a _great_ judge of character, muchas gracias." 

He turned to look directly at the visibly troubled Cam. "And Camry, look, we both went through a lot of pain after you disappeared, so this is all a lot to take in for Saoirse. We're gonna explain it all as best we can, though, and it's gonna be fine. So let's just stay calm and talk this through."

A heavy exhale out his nose later, Dude sat down on the edge of the piano bench and beckoned for Camry to come closer. She refused, but out of more than just trepidation for how Saoirse would react. One hand covered her mouth, and she looked back at the closed door fearfully. "Cam, what's the matter?"

"I-I-- I have to go take care of somethi--" she started to say, but was cut off by a dry retch thanks to her volcanic core threatening to make her puke right there on the carpet. Camry dashed to the door and wrenched it open, but a wave of dizziness crashed over her and forced her down to her knees. Somebody was touching her shoulders for all of two seconds before they jumped back; the heat she was emitting must have rivaled an industrial-sized oven.

"Sorry!" she tried to say, but it all came out in a jumbled gurgle of lava resting at the back of her throat. The smell of smoke and ash clogged the air, but when she tried to rise and make it to the nearest bathroom her legs gave out again beneath her. At least her gloves were fireproof, or else they would have been toast within an instant.

"Cam, c'mon, get back in here," Dude was saying, and she was dimly aware of her silk shirt tightening around her front and dragging her back inside the soundproof room. The door closed, containing Camry's gagging and the telltale scents of a volcano erupting. 

"Dude, just get away from her!" Saoirse said, though her undertones made it clear she was afraid of whatever was happening to the other girl. "You don't know what she's doing!"

Then the lava pooled in the palm of her hands and spilled through her fingers to sear holes in the rug and raise the temperature of the small room. A little ring of flame sprouted around the puddle of lava, but as soon as her head cleared Camry squeaked and began to frantically smother the fire with her hands, which were completely unbothered by the otherwise intense heat. As soon as that was taken care of, she remembered that she wasn't alone in the room and slowly looked back over her shoulder.

Saoirse and Dude were both staring at her with round, round eyes and, in Dude's case, a dropped jaw. Relle couldn't help how her entire face and ears flared up a bright red-orange out of embarrassment, so to try and hide it she banged her forehead into the door and let it stay there. "Aw, man... I wanted to take care of that in the bathroom, not somewhere like _here_."

Though she didn't look up to acknowledge him right away, Dude knelt down beside her and snickered, "Salava," before poking her cooled arm. "Get it? _Salava?_ "

A strangled chuckle burst out of her chest in reply and was quickly taken over by coughing, but her embarrassed blush slowly began to dim until only a pale pink color tinted just barely with orange highlighted her cheekbones. "Oh my god, Dude," she giggled. "Why didn't _I_ think of that?"

"You were probably too busy throwing up lava," he pointed out. "And now for the real questions: what the _heck_ was _that?_ "

As her headache began to fade, and Camry turned around to sit with her back against the door and look at both of her best friends. "See, that's part of what I was trying to explain earlier. Ghosts have these things called 'cores,' and..."

~

"That can't be true," Saoirse concluded a handful of silent seconds after Relle finished her explanation of what she was and what she needed to do to come back to life. "Humans don't come back from the dead. That's sacrilege."

"Well, I'm going to make this work, no matter what," Camry answered with determination gleaming in her sphalerite eyes. "I'm gonna beat Crom, get our families back, and fix my mistake."

"What mistake?" Dude had to ask, his brow furrowed before realization hit him. "Oh, because you opened the oven door and let him out? Oh, c'mon, Cam, that _totally_ wasn't your fault."

"But it kinda is, in a way!" she protested. "And I'm probably one of the only people who can fix this, so I have to do it. It's part of why Danny and his friends came with-- Oh, crap! We just left them out there and disappeared!" 

The two of them were on their feet in an instant and rushing out the door with Saoirse trailing after them at a slower pace. She paused at the threshold to stare down at the still-smoking burn marks on the carpet and grimaced, her brain reeling with all the new information she was still trying to process. 'Camry's soul split from her body? Crom Cruach stealing everyone away? This _has_ to be some sort of sick joke.'

When she finally caught up to Dude and Relle, they were apologizing to Danny, Tucker, and Sam, all of whom had been given some food and juice balls from the supply shipment. Tucker assured the two of them that nothing bad had happened, and that he had been able to explain to Mrs. Mahadeo everything that had happened to lead them back to Delta Pin. 

"Okay, but what _are_ these?" Sam inquired as she held up a green ball in the palm of her hand. The little orb was about the size of a softball and flattened against her palm to jiggle around merrily. "They just gave them to us with this tray of food."

"Oh, you've never had a juice ball before?" Dude asked, incredulous. He spun about ninety degrees and waved to another teenager sitting beside a box full of stacked trays with little circles cut out of the styrofoam. "Hey, man, send a couple over here!"

The kid shrugged and reached in to lob a blue and another green one their way. Both Dude and Camry jumped to catch theirs: Dude took the green one and Camry snagged the blue one before it could fly too far over their heads. Thanks to her diminutive stature, she used a tile as a stepping stool in order to jump high enough. "Gracias, my guy!" Dude called back.

"You gotta bite into the shell and suck all the juice out," he explained as Camry hopped back onto the ground and rolled her own juice pouch between her hands. 

"Really?" Tucker gasped before pinching a little excess shell between his fingers and biting through it with his incisors. Danny followed suit, but Sam was a little more wary. Tuck drank it all down in two huge gulps and looked curiously at the withered husk left behind. "Weird... but it tasted good!"

"And then you can eat that," Camry supplied. She looked around idly and spotted Saoirse grabbing a juice ball for herself from the same box. She'd selected a red one, for some peculiar reason.

"That's so cool!" Tucker exclaimed. The shell disappeared inside his mouth immediately after.

"So, what's it made of, exactly? I'm ultra-recyclo vegetarian, so I should probably know before I try any of this," Sam asked.

"Plant fibers and starch, I think," Dude answered.

Both Danny and Sam stared Tucker, who just then registered what Dude had said right after he swallowed. His eyes bulged behind his glasses. "That was a _vegetable?_ "

Their laughter rose up behind Camry, but she paid them little mind as she ambled over to where Saoirse stood by herself, looking down intently at the red juice ball in her hand. Her other arm was crossed under her chest and gave her posture a vibe that screamed "Don't talk to me, I want to be left alone." Camry knew that all too well, and yet she knew she still had to try and get through to her stubborn best friend. As she made her way over, the other survivors gave her a reasonably wide berth.

"H-Hey," she stammered to get Saoirse's attention. She didn't look up, but her stare morphed into a heated glare that would have murdered her juice pouch if looks really could kill. "I got a blue one, and I know you like those a lot more than red ones, so... wanna trade?"

Saoirse sighed angrily and finally met Camry's eye, but the intensity of her gaze made Camry suddenly wish she hadn't. "What do you think you're doing?"

"U-Uh--?" was her eloquent reply.

"Look, I get what you're trying to do. I'm not an idiot," Saoirse said. "But you're _not_ my friend, alright? I don't know what spell you've got over Dude, but you're not tricking me, too."

" _Why_ is this so hard for you to believe?" Relle asked after a moment. "I'm not trying to hurt you, Saoirse. I'm trying to apologize for the hurt I've already caused you."

"Well, it's gonna take a lot more than 'wanna trade?' for you to make up for my father being taken," Saoirse spat, then stormed off yet again with her left fist threatening to pop the red ball in her hand. Camry sadly watched her go and absentmindedly bit into her blue one only to grimace at the taste. She really didn't care for the blue ones.

When Saoirse finally stopped stalking away and chewed into her own juice ball, the taste flowing over her tongue made her want to gag. Why did there have to be only red or orange ones in the case? They were her least favorite.

~

At the edge of the barrier, five teens stood solemnly and looked out at the unforgiving world just beyond. They had a vague plan formed, but it wasn't going to be easy to execute if they couldn't find a way to get past all the snakes slithering back and forth across the parking lot, guarding and surrounding the entire shopping center. For Camry and Danny, the answer was simple enough, but defeating Crom was only going to happen if they _all_ worked together.

'I wish Saoirse was helping us' Cam couldn't help thinking as she glanced back at the mall. Everyone was staying inside for the most part as per the government's instructions and to try and ignore the snakes filling the parking lot to the brim. From this particular point of view, they formed a glowing green ocean with countless fangs. 'Why couldn't she just _believe_ me? I don't understand... What was I supposed to say to show her that I really am who I say I am?'

But that was a dilemma for another time. For now, there was work to be done.

"They surprised us last time, but they've lost that element," Danny concluded triumphantly. "We'll be ready for whatever they throw at us."

"I just wish I knew why they attacked us out of the blue like that," Sam commented mostly to herself.

"Yeah, what changed?" Tucker also wondered. "We didn't see _any_ of them up until after we went to Camry's house and found the Thermos there. Could that be it?"

In answer to that, Camry pulled the charred Thermos out of her pack and held it up in plain view of the snakes. Some of those nearest to the barrier regarded her coldly, but kept on slithering. "So... maybe not?"

"Here!" Dude piped up as he took the Thermos out of her hands and chucked it as hard as he could to their right. The cylinder bumped, skidded, and rolled to a stop a fair distance down the curved length of the barrier. Only the snakes directly across the shield from the Thermos took even the most remote interest. 

"That's definitely a no, then," Danny said. "But what could it be?"

"A little warning next time would be nice, Dude," Camry said with a mirthful smile as she gently elbowed him in the ribs. With that being said, she went after the Thermos and scooped it up in one graceful motion. When she straightened, she stood only a few feet away from the barrier and was facing it directly, so she got a perfect view of the hundreds of snakes stacked up on top of each other and staring intently at her. Camry couldn't help the little shriek that escaped her as she reeled back, her arms pinwheeling madly at her sides.

"Is it... _m-me_ they're after?" she had to ask, though it wasn't aimed at any one person in particular.

Tucker was the one that spoke up then. "But we've been in this dimension for plenty of time since before finding the Thermos. It can't be just you."

"Did we wander into their territory and rile them up, maybe?" Sam tried. "We were heading toward the lake when they attacked."

Danny and Camry's eyes met before his gaze dropped and landed on the bulky object hanging around her neck. "Wait, wait! I think I've got it." He took a few steps forward and put his hand out expectantly. "Let me see your camera for a minute."

"What? _Why?_ " she immediately asked, her hands flying up to cradle her prized possession. 

"When we were at your house, you took your camera out of your bag to make room for the Thermos. What if _that's_ what the snakes are after?" he posed. Something about how she had reacted to his suggestion definitely didn't sit well with Danny, though.

"That-- That can't be right," Camry sputtered without even taking the time to mull over the idea. "It's gotta be something else."

"But what if it isn't?" he pressed. "We'll never know if we don't try."

Something had definitely changed in the air. Camry took a few steps back and shook her head emphatically without letting go of her Polaroid. "We'll figure something out. Just leave my camera out of this, okay?"

"Cam, stop!" Dude yelled, reaching a hand out toward her and lunging forward. "Just stop for a sec. Take a couple steps forward."

"You can't have my camera!" she insisted, taking another step back just to spite him. Suddenly the hum and crackle of energy buzzed in her ear, and she glanced over her shoulder to see that she was eye-to-eye with a snake staring her down hungrily. Her backing up had put her right against the barrier without her even realizing it! Nobody moved or said a word.

She froze, going rigid and unable to look away from the eye with so many colors in its iris. Slowly, making no sudden movements, she pried her fingers off of her camera and lifted it off her neck. Camry held it up, arms trembling while her resolve strengthened. In one smooth motion she threw the Polaroid to her right and could feel the breeze created by the entire swarm dashing through the air to follow it. The camera bounced and clattered to the asphalt noisily only a few inches from the circle's edge; its proximity seemed to be driving the snakes crazy by how they slithered all over one another and tried to bite the barrier itself.

As soon as she was rid of the camera, an invisible vise around her chest had been released and let her suck in a deep breath. It was like she had been on the verge of drowning without ever realizing it! She looked back at the others and had no idea what to say. Her inexplicable paranoia had to have stemmed from an artificial need to protect the camera from her friends and, most importantly, Danny.

Everything made sense! Her visions of her own world through the eyes of tiny green snakes had occurred when she was either near or wearing her camera. Arachne herself had plainly stated that she could sense a reptilian aura emitting from the device itself! What's more, it hadn't run out of film since the start of this entire adventure, and it sustained virtually no damage despite being soaked in the rain and carted through all of Pandora's maze. 

"I-- I'm sorry. I think I know what Crom wants," she gasped out. 

And then she launched into an explanation that was more like a flurry of words than a coherent stream of thought. "He was influencing me to try and step outside the barrier just now! Except it wouldn't work 'cause it'd repel me right away-- but I took a picture of him right when he spliced my soul from my body! And it's been acting weird ever since! What if taking the picture did something to him? What if _that's_ what he wants? Except how does taking a picture actually do something to someone like that-- but then again, Kitty used my pictures to send us all here-- but that was _after_ I got spliced, so that doesn't add up! But Clockwork's the ghost who controls time and he pulled me through so maybe things got muddled together in the time stream-- I dunno, what do you guys think?"

"Uh... One more time, por favor?" Dude asked slowly with an awkward chuckle. "And in real English this time?"

"The snakes want this camera because Crom wants it, right?" Camry summed up while picking it up by the strap and holding it out toward them. At that point, there was very little that could be done to get her to put it back on after she figured that Crom had influenced her with its energies. "That means we have a bargaining chip, at least. Maybe we can use it to get back everyone he took!"

"Except that he wants it for a reason," Sam pointed out quickly, stabbing an index finger at the guilty Polaroid. "And something tells me it's not just to take pictures. We can't just _give_ it to him!" 

"Good point," Danny conceded, a thoughtful hand on his chin. "What can we _do_...?" 

It was then that Camry's grip on the neck strap tightened, somehow turning her pale knuckles inside her gloves even whiter. Her free hand curled into a steadfast fist at her side, and she whirled around to face the wall of snakes still fighting to get to her camera. " _Hey, Crom!_ If you can see us, then listen up!"

The snakes instantly calmed, settling down and regarding her with what could have been smirks on their scaly faces. Forked tongues flicked in and out all across the sea of reptiles. A collective voice, reedy and far too familiar to the blue-haired girl, rose up out of all their mouths. " _Yesss_ , little moussse?"

"You want this camera, don't you?" she barked and jabbed an index finger at the wall of scales. "And you don't want me to destroy it, _right?_ " 

Without waiting for a response, Camry continued in the most authoritative voice she could muster. "Then you're gonna get rid of these snakes and let us go to the lake, or you'll never see this camera again!"

A chuckle rumbled throughout every inch of the vast parking lot as each and every snake closed their eyes to laugh. "You really think you can dessstroy your _most prized posssesssion?_ I'll believe it when I sssee it. However... I wouldn't refussse the offer of an in-perssson delivery, so I sssupposse I'll let you proccceed."

The wall began to collapse in on itself as the serpents dispersed, and Camry let out a heavy breath she didn't know she'd been holding in. Because she hadn't been expecting to hear it again, Crom's voice speaking up once more startled her into visibly jumping in her skin. "I look forward to finishing the job, little moussse."

Then the parking lot emptied of any and all snakes, taking their green glow with them and leaving a strange, negated feel to the atmosphere. "That... was super creepy," Tucker said, the first to break the silence. 

"Way to go, Cam!" Dude cheered, throwing both fists into the air. "Who knew you had it in ya?"

"What're we waiting for? Let's drop the barrier and get going," Danny announced.

"Oh, I got that part covered," Tucker assured them confidently. "While we were eating I calibrated my PDA to lock onto the signal coming from the ghost shield generator and its on-off switch. I can remotely control it now."

"On to kicking Crom's butt!" Sam said while pointing an index finger in the general direction the snakes had retreated. 

"Wait a second!"

The newcomer's voice was distinctly accented with traces of both Irish and Pakistani Urdu as a result of her parents' countries of origins. Saoirse ran up to the group as fast as she could, the edges of her light purple hijab whipping around her face and shoulders. 'She changed into another hijab?' Camry wondered. 'And sturdy boots, too...'

"I'm coming with you," Saoirse stated breathlessly when she caught up to them. She held a blaster in both hands while a smaller, more pistol-like version was strapped to her hip for good measure. 

"You are?" Dude asked, incredulous. "But I figured--"

" _Somebody's_ gotta make sure you don't get bitten," Saoirse cut in before letting her blaster rest cockily on her shoulder. "And I trust the _rest_ of you about as far as I can throw you."

Camry jumped in at the jab and tried to smooth things over by making some introductions. "Hey, so, uh, Saoirse, this is Danny, Tucker, and Sam. They're the ones I was telling you about earlier!"

"I gathered as much," Saoirse said flippantly without bothering to even look at 'Relle.'

"Well... okay, then?" Danny said with a shrug, then turned to Tucker. "Let's get outta here."

"Right," Tucker agreed, and with a few commands tapped out on his PDA the white barrier disappeared to let everyone out. He made sure to put it back up behind them, and with that taken care of he stowed his PDA away in a pocket of his cargo shorts. 

Now that she knew what the camera could do to her, Camry only put it back on after promising herself that she wouldn't let it gain control over her like that again. After all, she was going to need to keep all her wits about her if she was going to successfully beat Crom and save everyone, right?

Right.


	34. Chapter 34

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A few chapters back, Camry mentions that the only reason she knows anything about Crom at all is because of a movie she and Saoirse both love. That movie is actually called "The Secret of Kells" and it's one of my all-time favorites! I do like how they portray Crom, but it's not exactly the same way I do, so I hope there's no confusion about that.

"We need a plan for when we get there." Sam was the first one to speak since leaving Delta Pin's safety shield, and her voice startled everyone else out of their own heads to bring them back to reality. 

Camry's grip tightened on her camera automatically. "You're right... We can't _actually_ let Crom have this."

The sky above was gray with a thick cover of clouds, and while the wind had died down the freezing air still bit through their clothes with vengeance and turned their noses bright red. The only ones unaffected by it were Danny, with his ice powers quickly acclimating him to the wintry environment, and Camry, whose volcanic core was keeping both her and the surrounding air as warm as a sunny spring day. Dude, Tucker, and Sam had gravitated toward her unconsciously as they walked until she was in the center of a human-sized penguin huddle. 

"Since this is a rescue mission, we'll need to make Crom reveal where he's keeping the people he took," Tucker wisely concluded. "If they're at the bottom of the lake, he's probably got them inside something to keep them from drowning."

"I can walk out over the lake on my tiles and be the bait," Camry offered, though the idea unsettled her to no end regardless of how confident she made herself sound. 

"You sure you want to do that?" Danny asked. "I can already tell fighting him isn't going to be a walk in the park."

At that, she had to glance around at the dead trees and grass that made up the literal park they were currently walking through on their way to the lakefront. "No, but... I'm the one he's got a special interest in, so I'm pretty sure it's gotta be me. How else are we going to hold his attention?" 

Her rhetorical question wasn't given an answer, thus proving her theory correct. 

By the time they arrived at the pebbled shore of Bailey Lake, everyone's nerves were wound tighter than industrial springs. There hadn't been any snakes the entire way there, but every single one of the six teens could feel hundreds of eyes constantly trained on their backs. The lake stretched into the distance to their left and right, and its furthest edge was only marked by rounded mountains rising up on the horizon. All around was silence, clogging the air with suspense; the only noise came from their footsteps on the rocky ground and the gentle lapping of the lake water crawling up the shore. 

Danny opened his mouth to speak, to say something uplifting to rally his friends and allies into a fighting spirit. His hesitant words were interrupted by a wisp of light blue vapor passing through his lips at the same time Camry hiccuped beside him. Her own ghost sense was the thickest, darkest shade of smoky black he had ever seen, and it forced her into a coughing fit that lasted a handful of seconds. Dude tapped the back of his hand on her arm out of concern, but relaxed when she shook her head and smiled at him reassuringly. 

"He's on his way," she reported needlessly. "So... We all know what to do? Vaguely?"

"About as much as we always do," Sam answered. "Or don't. Bring it on." She raised her right fist to brandish her Wrist Ray she hadn't taken off since the start of this entire adventure. 

The fact that Sam had been the one to answer her first-- and with such confidence, no less-- filled Camry with the hope that maybe they could be friends after all. 'Maybe I was blowing what she said back then out of proportion... It's not like I wouldn't have done the same thing for Dude or Saoirse if I thought someone was a threat to them.' 

On that note, her core steeled itself for what she knew was about to come as she squared her shoulders and faced the lake head-on. About a hundred yards from shore, bubbles began to burst rapidly in a cluster, as if a roiling boil had started in just that spot. The circle of bubbles grew larger and larger, and the sound became loud enough to drown out nearly everything else. When a green glow began to show through the water, Camry had to shove back the memory of her oven in the middle of the night.

"You ready?" Danny asked without looking away from the approaching enemy at first. When he did look at her, it was a sidelong glance that Relle mirrored.

Dukes up and teeth grit, Relle nodded once. "As I'll ever be."

Danny leaped into the air then, taking off over the water's surface without maxing out his speed capabilities so Camry could keep up on her tiles. Her powerful jumps let her periodically draw even with Danny, but she still found herself straining to not look slow compared to him. After all, her friends were watching, and this was their first real introduction to the new things she could do. 'There's no way I'm gonna blow this' she promised herself silently.

Her Polaroid bumped against the bottom of her rib cage with every bound to serve as a reminder of what she knew she would have to do when Crom showed himself. Speaking of Crom, the boiling water was frothing underneath where she stood and Danny hovered, but neither ghost kid could see him yet. Camry's stomach churned at the threat of deep water she could so easily fall into if she took one wrong step.

Suddenly, the green glow darkened as if a long, thick shape had passed in front of it, and Crom burst out into the air. His villainous entrance brought a rain shower of lake water down on their heads; Camry found herself instinctively shielding her camera as she turned away and ducked to avoid the splashing. Danny simply held up his arms and shook it off when the little dousing was over. 

Floating in midair, Crom's magnificently strong body coiled and uncoiled continuously, moving as effortlessly as an oil spill and shining like one, too. His full length had to reach as long as a football field, goal post to goal post, and at his thickest point he would have gotten stuck in the pipes grown men could stand up in without hitting their head. He regarded them coldly, his iridescent eyes flashing back and forth between his two young adversaries. 

"Hmm..." he hummed. " _You_ again? Am I _never_ going to be rid of you, boy?" 

Danny's brow furrowed at that. "'Again?' I think you've got the wrong ghost kid, buddy."

"Oh, don't play the idiot," Crom sighed. "I cannot even _begin_ to recount the time wasssted in your ssstupid contraption."

Before Danny could reply to that, Crom had swiveled his attention over to an imperceptibly trembling Camry. "And if it isssn't the _little moussse_. Thank you for bringing me my eye like the good pet you are."

She visibly bristled at being called a "pet" and grit her teeth even harder, threatening to crack them out of anger. "You wanna go, _pal?_ Don't think I won't _happily_ clobber you into the dirt!"

Crom closed his eyes to chuckle at her words. "A feisssty moussse: they alwaysss tassste the besst."

"Oh, _bite me_ ," Camry snarled under her breath. Because of her rather poor choice of words, she knew not to say it loud enough for all to hear. Then, by raising her voice, she called out, "Alright, so we brought my camera here, just like I said we would."

"SSSo you have," Crom observed with an all too pleased gleam in his slit eyes. "Give it to me, girl, to keep your end of the bargain."

"I don't think we're ready to go ahead with that just yet," Danny intruded. "First give back all the people your snakes bit. _Then_ we'll talk."

Crom's forked tongue flicked in and out of his mouth once, twice, before he replied to that. "How can you be sssure I can do that? What if they are all long, long gone?"

"You said something about a 'feast' and needing 'practice' for something," Relle answered while pointing her index finger right at his serpentine face. "I get the feeling you need them alive, for whatever reason, and that's why you lured them into the lake instead of just attacking them outright."

His enormous eyes narrowed-- and now that they really looked, both teens could see a bit of cloudiness in his left pupil when he turned to show that side to both of them-- as his mouth pressed into a thin line. "I'm not an ant to be put under your microssscope, _moussse_. Unless you want to lossse what little you have left, you will hand over that camera right thisss inssstant!"

Relle took a step back at that, and a second tile appeared to match her movement. Her grip tightened around the body of her Polaroid, and her piercing glare settled on the place right between Crom's eyes. "Over my dead body." It came out darker than she intended and would have sent shivers up her spine had she heard it come from someone else.

At that, Crom snickered, his body coiling tight while he raised his head high in preparation to strike. "How apt," was his response, and lunged with agility far beyond what a creature his size should have been capable of. 

Camry and Danny dodged by jumping in sync in opposite directions, forcing Crom to pick only one of his targets to focus on at a time. With the item he obviously wanted for himself, Camry was the natural first choice, and she found herself running on tiles that she could barely create fast enough for her to stay airborne. Danny circled back from up above, taking the high 'ground' to start shooting plasma rays into Crom's back as he chased after Camry. She did her best to fire back as well, but aiming over the shoulder is never as accurate as actually _looking_ at the target.

Distracted by the blasts striking his scales from above, Crom let out a low peal of laughter and twisted back around, flicking the tip of his tail up to clip Danny in the sternum and send him flying even higher into the air. "Is that all?" Crom jeered. "I expected more effort from you on our sssecond encounter, little 'ssavior!'" 

_Boom, boom, boom!_ When he'd turned his attention on Danny, Relle darted under the snake and began firing off bursts of fire along the length of his long body. Even as she ran and the spots where she had hit him smoked, she could tell it had very little effect other than to leave little blemishes on his dark grey underbelly. 

Crom recoiled at her annoying attacks and made to lunge for her with his jaw unhinged. Chilly wind whipped around her, threatening to throw her short hair into her eyes when she looked back over her shoulder and saw him coming for her. From her point of view, the giant snake coming for her soul reminded her of what the view must be like to stand on train tracks and watch the locomotive chug forward at deceptively high speeds. Braced for anything, Relle waited until the last few seconds to leap to the side, effectively dodging his maw while forgetting completely about his tail. 

The tip of the appendage struck her solidly in the gut and sent her flying out further from shore. Had it not been for the dozens of tiles that appeared all at once and connected at the ends to form a slide, she would have surely plummeted into the water. As it were, she tucked her head down and fell into a continuous somersault that deposited her on her rear at the end of the film reel. As always, her camera was none the worse for wear, and her head spun with the suddenness of so many consecutive tumbles. 

Back on her feet, Camry turned around to see Crom and Danny playing a game of cat and mouse-- well, snake and mouse would be more accurate. Danny would zip out of the way every time Crom charged but then would have to dodge his tail or a sharp turn of the gigantic snake's head. The dance they performed was futile, with neither being able to land a real blow without taking damage to himself in the process. 

She took an extra second to glance back at the shore, where the others stood and watched the fight take place above the lake. Tucker had the Thermos ready in his hands, and Sam looked raring to go toe-to-toe with Crom at the drop of a hat. Saoirse and Dude, on the other hand, definitely looked uneasy at all the violence; they hadn't really been given all that much time to adjust to this sort of thing, after all. 

"At least they have weapons to defend themselves with," Camry commented to herself before leaping back into the fray, her fists smoking with barely restrained firepower. 

On the lake shore, Sam fidgeted with her Wrist Ray and paced back and forth along the water's edge. "How are we gonna get Crom to show us where the prisoners are?" she groaned, gesturing with a wild hand toward the giant black snake that was their current enemy. 

"We'll be ready when we do find them, though," Dude stated with earnest, his own anti-ghost rifle gripped in both hands and pointed up toward the gray sky. "If only we could go down into the lake, like with a submarine or something..."

"Fresh out of submarines, dude," Tucker answered without looking out toward the shore further to their left. A huge rock, perfect for jumping off if the water reached just a little further up the shore, jutted out at the edge of the water and narrowed to a rounded point aimed toward the center of the lake. It wasn't much, but maybe if Crom flew close enough they could hide there and try to provide ground support with their blasters. "C'mon, I have an idea."

"Oh, you like that, _huh?_ " Relle taunted from her place on a film negative high above a coiled-up Crom. The top of his skull smoked with the aftereffects of a huge fireball that had hit its mark head on, if you'll excuse the pun. Danny flew up to hover next to her and put a hand up for a high-five; she did not leave him hanging. 

Unfortunately, their miniature celebration was premature, because Crom's tail struck them each at the same time and threw them far, far out over the water. Danny seized Camry's arm before she could fall in, but it was a close call that resulted in them standing on conjoined tiles only a couple of feet over the water.

"Wh-What're we doing wrong?" she wheezed, winded from that last blow. It had caught her right in the chest, knocking the air out of her lungs and momentarily making her vision go white. Danny kept her arm around his shoulder a moment longer just to make sure she wouldn't topple over and into the lake. "Nothing's weakening him!"

"You're right," Danny agreed, his features contorted into a grimace as a stitch in his side flared up with throbs timed to his heartbeat. "We have to look for a weak spot of some kind and go for that. His scales are strong, though."

"Didn't Crom call my camera his 'eye' earlier?" she wondered out loud, her free hand cradling her Polaroid at its base. "What if we--"

"Look out!" Danny instinctively yelled, and before she could stop him she had been picked up princess-style and was whisked away faster than she could possibly run. Crom's bared fangs, gleaming with venom, were the first things she saw when she looked behind them a split second after being lifted up. Danny's legs had disappeared to be replaced by a tapering wisp of a tail, which vanished when he stopped and set her down on a tile she called into existence. 

"I think his left eye is blind," Camry told him as her feet touched the film negative. "Maybe we can use that to our advantage."

"Right," he said with a nod, and the duo split up once more with Danny taking the high ground and Camry keeping close to the water's surface. This time, they ran toward Crom together with the intent of at least one of them dodging around him and vanishing in his blind spot.

"Consssidering how much of a thorn in my ssside you've been, I'll be glad to rid thisss world of you both!" Crom declared mightily as he weaved through the air toward them to meet their advance. 

"If this is you 'trying,' I don't think you're gonna get very far with that," Danny commented casually, firing rays of ice this time since his plasma rays seemed to have minimal effect. The ones that Crom dodged froze circles of the surface of the already chilled lake, and the blasts that hit their mark slowed the cold-blooded ghost and seemed to weigh him down by how he dropped in altitude a little bit every time. "Ha!" 

A puff of bright green fire from Crom's mouth immediately melted the bands of ice frozen around sections of his body and tail, much to Danny and Camry's mutual disappointment. If there was one thing to take away from this, however, it was that they now knew that ice was an effective tactic in slowing him down. Maybe it was even their golden ticket to victory!

The second Crom turned back from melting the ice encasing his body, he was met with the sight of a blue-haired ghost girl rapidly closing in on his head. In her hands was a smoking puddle of something viscous that glowed ever so slightly. He twisted away to the right, which was his first big mistake of the day. 

By going right, he had exposed his left side to her, and at the speed she had built up for a surprise attack, he hadn't been able to move fast enough to escape completely unscathed. The thick lava flew through the air without totally cooling, and the super hot goo landed on the scales near the outer corner of his left, incapacitated eye. Crom's maw dropped open in a high-pitched, enraged roar that shook the very air around him and made the two ghostly heroes cover their ears.

" _You_ \--!" he growled, whirling back to glare daggers of hatred at Camry as she was recovering from that scream. He darted toward her, slipping through the air like a hot knife through butter and so fast that the only thing she had time for was to vanish her tile and drop like a stone. Relle's arm was up as she fell, and right on cue Danny snagged it and raced along the water's surface. They flew so low that she had to bend her knees so her boots didn't drag in the waves. 

"Weak point confirmed!" Camry called up to Danny cheerfully, her other hand curled into a triumphant fist. "Now what?"

"We keep at it until we can trap him in the Thermos," Danny answered immediately. All of this was commonplace for him by then, of course, even if the circumstances had drastically changed. "I left mine with Tucker, though-- darn it. But we shouldn't draw Crom's attention to them if we can help it."

Skimming the surface of the lake, Camry frowned thoughtfully and cupped her chin while looking down at her fleeting, fractured reflection. Her gaze drifted to shore, where she saw Dude jumping off a tall diving rock and onto the pebbly beach while waving his hands as high in the air as he could. A sharp gasp escaped her, and Cam reached up to pat one of Danny's hands clamped around her upper arm. "Hey, I've got a-- _look out!_ "

Even though they had been flying away from Crom and parallel to the shoreline, the snake ghost had dived beneath the water to sneak up on them from below. The only reason Relle saw him coming at all was because she had glanced down at her reflection once more and happened to notice a dark shadow growing larger and larger beneath her feet. 

He took off in a steep ascension, dragging Camry along as Crom burst free of the lake and was millimeters away from snagging her boot between his fangs. As it were, her 'heartbeat' stopped dead in her chest as she saw the inside of Crom's open mouth _far_ too closely for a second time. Time seemed to slow to a sloth's crawl, and every single one of her senses was thrust into overdrive.

The heat of his breath-- not to mention the smell-- squeezed her lungs until they ached. Danny's grip on her arm was so desperately tight, but his hands were the coldest sensation of all in these few precious fractions of a second. She could see the saliva glistening on Crom's forked tongue and the shine of the dull light reflecting off of his pearly white fangs. 

Then time resumed, and she was yanked out just before Crom closed his mouth around her much smaller form. As they climbed, the coast and the annoyed Crom grew smaller and smaller below them. "Danny, I'll turn invisible and go back to shore!" she called up to him. "You're faster than me, so keep Crom busy while I get the Thermos!"

"Okay, got it," he said before releasing her arm, much to her relief. Her joints were starting to whine in protest, and past experience told her that her shoulder was going to be sore for a while afterward.

Camry vanished from view as she fell, and when she landed and rolled into a crouch, all the film negatives were invisible as well to all eyes except her own. She dashed down the reel, her arms pumping at her sides madly to get to the others before keeping Crom occupied on his own became too much of a problem for Danny. 

The sounds of ecto rays firing exploded behind her, and green light illuminated the water from the battle taking place higher in the sky. She was so intent on reaching the shore that the attack, a blast of green fire from Crom's mouth, threw her completely off guard and sent her careening parallel to the shore instead of toward it. It struck dead-on and forced her invisibility to drop.

"You think I can't sssee you?" he bellowed as he turned his tail back on Danny, who evaded it with a graceful loop-de-loop. "You wear my eye around your neck, moussse!"

Her shoulder smoked as Camry rose to her feet and gripped where she'd been hit. "Ouch...!"

A sharp movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention and directed it toward the beach, where Tucker was waving to her from behind that same huge rock Dude had jumped off of earlier. He was beckoning to her as well with an insistent look on his face. "Bring it this way!" he seemed to be saying, though 'it' was as much of a mystery as the whereabouts of her physical body. 

Then, her eyes darting back to Danny and Crom, she understood. "Oh, you mean _this_ eye, Crom?" she yelled at the top of her lungs while holding out her camera by the strap. "Come and get it, then!"

"What kind of a _fool_ do you take me for?" he shouted back at her, and a bolt of green plasma landed solidly on top of his head and spurred him into chasing after Danny, who zoomed in Camry's direction. She took off as well, aiming for the diving rock and her friends lying in wait there. 

Pebbles flew in all directions when Relle hit the ground running and found herself standing just in front of the diving rock. She held out the Polaroid, which swung back and forth on its slightly smoking strap clutched in her iron fist, and watched as Danny led Crom back toward the shore.

"Ready?" Dude whispered to her from his hiding place on the other side of the rock.

"You bet," was her uncharacteristically confident reply. 

Danny zipped past at top speed, stirring up a wintry wind that sent a shiver up Relle's spine. Crom was hot on his heels, a jet of fire building at the back of his wide throat. Before he had a chance to fire it off, a beam of blue-white light shot out over the top of the boulder and snagged Crom near his middle. A roaring cry split the air like a cleaver as he folded in two, sucked down in the Thermos against his will. "You can't capture me so easily, you brats!" were the last words out of his mouth before it was all over. 

Finally, the air was clear, and Camry could breathe again.

"That... was it?" Saoirse asked skeptically as she came around the side of their hiding place, her gun pointed toward the ground.

"Nice shooting, guys!" Danny praised as he landed on the shore next to Camry. 

" _Yes!_ " she cheered, bringing a fist down toward her side in a sharp motion while kicking a bent knee up at the same time. "We did it!"

Their elation was cut short as a rumble started under the lake and spread, growing stronger and more forceful with every second. The water churned and frothed at the shore, and Dude lost his grip on the diving rock to tumble down on top of Camry. She staggered under his weight and fell onto her rear with a squeak that the earthquake drowned out. 

"What's happening?" Sam yelled, her amethyst eyes darting all around in search of the cause. 

"I don't know!" Saoirse answered, fear raising the pitch of her tone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now we have yet another cliffhanger. You are _welcome!_
> 
> It's over, isn't it? Isn't it? Isn't it over? Maybe not... ;)
> 
> See you in the next chapter~


	35. Chapter 35

The quake felled each and every one of them, even as Danny reached out to Sam in an effort to steady her throughout all the shaking and Tucker tumbled over onto the pile consisting of Camry and Dude. Lake water threatened to wash over them as it sloshed further and further up the shore, caused by an incredibly large shape emerging out of the blue. Pebbles flew and showered over their heads, but when the metaphorical dust settled the heroic teens shook them out of their hair and rose to their unsteady feet.

" _Guyyys_ , get off!" Camry called out urgently, her voice muffled by Dude's arm thrown haphazardly over her face. Both he and Tucker fumbled for their bearings and rolled away, leaving Camry free to sit up and lean back on her hands. The tide reached up just far enough to soak through the seat and legs of her jumpsuit, and she fought back a shiver while a grimace crossed her face. She didn't hesitate to accept Dude's offered hand up.

He likely would have apologized for squishing her as well, but before the words could fully form in his brain they were swept aside to make room for processing the sight that lay before him-- before _all_ of them. Risen out of the water and extending all the way to a patch of beachfront a few yards to their collective left, a huge platform made out of the lake bed waited. The top was just a few feet higher than the surface of the settling water, and it reached far out toward the center of the lake.

As if _that_ wasn't weird enough, there was one more oddity that completely overshadowed everything else in their current situation. Rows upon rows of green, oblong orbs sat perfectly still, their bases flattened so as not to tip them over. Most looked to be about the same size, though a few scattered throughout the veritable army-like array stood taller and/or wider than others. 

No one said anything at first. Camry pressed a fist against her sternum, her gaze super glued to the supernatural scene. Was this Crom's doing? There was hardly any other explanation for it. 

His previous words, spoken at a time that felt like ages ago, echoed through her head and elicited a sharp inhale. "Th- _This_ was his _plan!_ "

"A feast," Danny murmured, also unable to look away. A shudder passed through his body, and he crossed his arms over himself to retain a little human warmth. "Just like you said, Cam."

"H-He... He was going to do what he did to me, but to the whole _city_ ," she continued, though it was beginning to become clear to everyone else regardless of her harried hypothesis. " _I_ was his practice--"

"Well, then, we've gotta get them out of those things, right?" Dude asked rhetorically, already taking the lead in running to where the rocky, damp pier met the shore. "What're we waiting for?"

The trio from another dimension followed after him in a cluster, and Camry was right on their heels when a hand seized hers and prompted her to pause and look back. Saoirse's steely gaze met her anxious eyes, and the taller girl quickly let go. "If you're trying anything, don't think I won't try to stop you." She ground her words out around her tight jaw.

"C'mon, Saoirse. You know me better than that," was all Relle had to say quietly in reply. 

They dashed after the group and met up with them by the nearest green pod. Against _all_ recommendations, Dude had already pressed a curious hand against the slick surface and found it to be somewhat rubbery in texture and sturdiness. The vaguely translucent material offered the sight of a rough silhouette of a person inside; they were likely frozen in suspended animation, to the most optimistic of thinkers. 

"Any ideas?" he asked simply, poking the pod experimentally. 

"Tech's gonna be pretty useless here, I think," Tucker responded thoughtfully, his PDA safely tucked away in a pocket of his cargo shorts. "Unless one of you's got something futuristic and cool up your sleeves."

Saoirse patted around her hips and came up with only her small, secondary ray gun in addition to the larger rifle that rested on her shoulder. "Nothing, unless shooting these things is an option."

"Try your ghost ray, Danny," Sam suggested, and said hero stepped up to the plate, so to speak, to press his gloved hand flat against the strange prison of a pod. His brow furrowed with the effort of consciously limiting his energy output, and his palm glowed with green light that was a few shades lighter than the murky bubble. As soon as the energy touched it, the pod burst with a faint popping sound and revealed the prisoner inside. It was a middle-aged woman wearing button-up pajamas and pink bunny slippers, like she had been getting ready for bed when the snake bit her.

She blinked slowly and looked down into the stunned faces of six teens, two of which glowed with a faint white aura of unnatural origins. "Uh...?" was the lady's fumbled response to the situation she was still trying to comprehend. Steam drifted up in tendrils from the insides of the suspended animation pod around her.

" _Woo!_ " Dude cheered as he swung his anti-ghost rifle off his back and into his arms. "Lemme try something, too!"

He aimed at the ground by the closest pod in the next row over and squeezed the trigger, firing off a shot of blue-white light that made the hairs on Camry's exposed arms stand up straight. The second the ray made contact, the pod also exploded quietly and began to evaporate into the midday air. The freed citizen was also rather disoriented, though he seemed eager to take a few steps forward. Once the winter air registered on his skin, he shivered and hugged himself for warmth.

Knowing this was something they all could do, the six teens mentally prepped themselves for what was likely not going to be an easy task. "Okay, now we know what to do to free everyone. AAAnd," Danny began, then hovered up high enough to get a bird's eye view of the rest of the platform. His shoulders slumped in aggravation, " _this_ could take a while... So, let's spread out and start waking everybody up."

"Mmhmm!" Relle answered, saluting him before veering to the right of the pier and dashing down its length, using her tiles to run above the water. Tucker and Sam nodded before diving into the fray. Dude grinned and hurried after them, weaving around pods and shooting their bases all along the way. This left Saoirse to watch Relle jump amongst the rows much closer to the end of the platform, and she glowered silently before forging ahead with the intent of not letting the ghost girl too far out of her sight. 

Danny Phantom watched from above and frowned; he had clearly seen Saoirse's apparent distrust of Camry, and it unsettled him to think how it must feel for Camry to be on the receiving end of such negativity. Even if her core was close to being fully formed, she still needed to keep a close eye on her feedback intake, lest she have another one of those episodes she couldn't remember afterwards.

Either way, since the others had all decided they were going to be taking on the task of waking up the prisoners, that left Danny in the position of guiding them all back onto the beach and to safety. Who knew if the makeshift 'dock' was going to stick around forever? It could easily collapse and sink back into the lake, taking everyone else down with it. And sure, if they were all awake the citizens could swim to shore, but it was foolish to assume _everyone_ could swim, especially after practically incubating in suspended animation for several months.

Dude, Tucker, Camry, and Sam gave hasty directions to each person they woke up, telling them to make their way to the beach, before moving on to break open the next pod. Even with the four of them covering as much ground as possible by spreading out, the job was clearly going to take a long, long time with thousands of people to save. Relle took a moment to create stairs and climb them in order to look out over the sea of green shapes stretching both far in front of and behind her. She groaned loudly, her head lolling forward from irritation. 

From her viewpoint above the heads of everyone else, she was able to catch sight of a speck of pale purple making its way over to her. Camry's heart skipped a beat, but she forced the threatening blush to recede from her face. 'Remember, she's mad at you. She doesn't believe you're who you say you are.'

"H-Hey, Saoirse," she awkwardly called out with a short little wave of her right hand. Saoirse looked up to meet her eyes, but didn't say anything in answer. Rather, she simply made her way over, drawing even closer until she was all but right underneath the ghost girl. Camry dropped down to the ground nimbly and suppressed the urge to wrap her best friend up in a hug they both desperately needed.

"Shouldn't we be spread out to cover more area?" Relle pointed out after a few seconds of heavy silence between the two of them. 

Saoirse folded her arms over her chest at that. Her ray gun was obviously brandished, even as it pointed toward the ground to Saoirse's left. "I need to look for someone specifically," was her monotonous reply to that.

"O-Oh, your dad?" Camry guessed, turning to keep looking at the darker-skinned girl as she breezed by on her way to complete her 'quest.' Saoirse neither confirmed nor denied the assumption, and stoically kept heading toward the very edge of the pier. If her suspicions were correct, and if there was at least a little ring of truth in what Relle told her before, then the person she was looking for would have been the very first to be taken; that meant she would probably be trapped at the back of the crowd.

She knew she should have been waking up everyone else first and foremost, just like the other teens were doing so diligently, but the matter of proving Relle to not be who she said she was was just too important to put off. Even though Saoirse definitely could see a very striking resemblance to Camry in Relle's face and mannerisms every time she observed the ghost, she had to put her own mind at ease. There was no way her best friend was an undead _thing_ like that; how could she live with her own feelings after knowing something like that?

Little shooting noises followed Saoirse as she fast-walked, meaning that Relle was following her at a slower pace while also taking care of freeing the nearest citizens. At the other end of the pier, Danny hovered high enough in the air to be seen by all and kept the flow of people moving, even if the going was slowed down by disorientation and clear confusion. At the back of his head, Danny wondered if he was going to lose his voice after so much shouting of the same repeating directions so many times. 

Finally, the edge closest to the center of the lake was in sight, and a lone pod stood apart from the others. This particular one was shorter than the rest, much more opaque so it didn't give any indication of there being someone inside, and the top bore splintering cracks and little chunks missing. Saoirse's living heart raced from its place in her rib cage, and she darted forward while situating her rifle into its proper place against her shoulder. Thanks to one of the police officers that had survived the huge wave of attacks that finally made the general public realize the evil spirit plaguing their city was real, Saoirse and the rest of the teens her age, as well as most of the inexperienced adults, received proper gun-handling training and knew exactly how to handle the weapon.

Maybe this particular pod's different appearance was a result of how long it had been sitting there: almost seven months was a good estimate. The first shot Saoirse fired off sent a shower of splinters and shards flying across the pier, but the green object didn't explode right away. It took one more well-placed shot to break it open completely, and the newly-freed figure tipped forward limply, most likely unconscious. Her eyes were closed behind her overgrown, blonde bangs. Saoirse lunged forward to catch her under the arms, dropping her gun in the process and letting it bounce a couple of times.

" _Camry_...!" Saoirse breathed out, her voice quivering with emotion-- mainly relief. She eased her friend down to the ground and brushed the hair out of her eyes while taking note of her rather interesting appearance. Over the seven months she'd been gone, Camry's hair had grown out past her shoulders in an unkempt mess, and the edges of her green camisole and black sweatpants bore little tatters here and there. 

A sharp gasp sounded from a short distance behind Saoirse, and she glanced over her shoulder to see Relle staring with a stunned yet elated expression on her face-- a face that was practically identical to that of the girl lying in her lap. "You found my body!" Relle exclaimed, taking a few fast steps toward them only to freeze in her tracks when Saoirse snatched up the smaller pistol in her waistband and aimed it right at Relle's chest.

"Don't even _think_ about it," Saoirse snapped, her gaze steelier than ever. "I'm not gonna let you hurt her."

"'Hurt'--? Saoirse, that's _my body!_ " Relle insisted, and was about to say more as she gestured to herself when her ghost sense went off, releasing a cloud of thick, black smoke into the air. Little did they know that at the very same moment, Danny's own icy version of the same power activated as well and spurred his eyes into frantically scanning everywhere he could possibly see. 

In Saoirse's lap, Camry's body sucked in a deep, slow breath and let it out alongside a low, almost pained moan. Her eyes flickered open, and one hand wandered up to press against her temple. Saoirse hovered over her instantly, her hands flitting everywhere at once as she promised in a low voice that everything was alright now and that she would protect Camry.

"It's... you?" Camry whispered. Her eyes focused on Saoirse's face, and by looking over Saoirse's shoulder Relle could catch a glimpse of her body's eyes.

Why did they not look like iolite anymore?

Never mind _that_ \-- how was her body able to talk and breathe without _her_ in there?

"Saoirse... Just listen to me for a sec, okay?" Relle murmured, fear tightening her syllables and making her breaths hitch in her throat. 

That only made Saoirse's grip on Camry tighten. "You're going to leave her _alone_. Understand, ghost?" She looked back again to level a hate-filled glare Relle's way. "I should have known you were lying to us this whole time."

Because her head was turned, she didn't see Camry's body begin to rise into a sitting position or the smug look she aimed at the both of them. Relle did, however, and fire flared up in her palms in answer to the horrible stone of dread that had settled heavy in the pit of her stomach. Her suspicions were confirmed when something thin, white, and glowing appeared in her body's left hand and was swiftly pressed against Saoirse's hijab-covered throat. Relle shrieked, and Saoirse altogether stopped breathing while her pink tourmaline eyes widened as much as they possibly could.

"Cam--?" she started to say, but was cut off by the blade digging in just enough to cause her discomfort. 

"You should have listened to your friend here," the real Crom hissed in Saoirse's ear before turning his attention to Relle. "And _you_. If you plan on taking everything I've built up these last few months, then I will take what's precious to _you!_ "

Relle-- _Camry_ \-- seethed in rage, smoke filtering out through the spaces between her grit teeth as the fire in her palms burned hotter and hotter with every breath. " _You_...!" she growled, the fury in her sphalerite eyes unmatched. " _How dare you_ \--!"

"You cannot stop me! I _will_ feast, and reign as a god once more!" Crom declared, his (her?) voice carrying over the lake and reaching the ears of each and every teen in the ghost-hunting group. 

"Cam?" Tucker wondered aloud. He turned to look down the pier and started in that direction, briefly forgetting his task as the others did the same. 

"Put out those flames, or she follows you into the afterlife," Crom spat, and Camry immediately complied. Smoke wafted around her and blew to the side in the chilly, New Year breeze over the water. He chuckled, which sounded immensely strange to Camry's own ears as she heard her voice twisted around unnaturally. "Exactly like that. You wouldn't dare risk her safety. Now I see I should have done this from the beginning."

"Don't hurt her," Relle pleaded in as calm a tone as she could manage. Out of the corner of her eye, a monochromatic shape drifted by just below the surface of the lake, and a little breath of relief she tried to cover with a fake whimper escaped her. " _Please_."

"I missed the begging," Crom reminisced, instead tightening his grip on Saoirse even more and causing her to wince mutely. "I'll be sure to require all my subjects to grovel when I am back on my rightful pedestal. Now..." Relle was dimly aware of Sam, Dude, and Tucker arriving on the scene and stopping in their tracks behind her. Dude ground out something indiscernible in rapid-fire Spanish, but lowered his rifle just to be safe. He'd seen plenty of movies to recognize what a hostage situation looked like.

With his borrowed brow furrowed and a wicked smirk on Camry's body's face, Crom stared right at the Polaroid dangling from around Relle's neck. "Give me my eye, or else."

"Get out of my body, then," Relle retorted, and immediately regretted it as the folds of Saoirse's hijab enveloped the knife because it pressed in so close to her covered skin. " _Okay!_ Okay, okay. Fine, you'll get what you want. Just... Just let her go, alright?"

Slowly, she reached up to lift off the strap of the camera. It had risen only about an inch off her shoulders when a tiny green laser shot out from just above the surface of the water and struck Crom's knife hand, forcing him to drop it out of surprise. The glowing white knife evaporated in midair, and Camry dropped the camera back around her neck to lunge toward the two of them. 

And for the first conscious time ever, Camry successfully turned intangible. 

She phased through Saoirse's left side and slammed into her own body, wrestling it down and disappearing into the ground in the span of a second. Everyone's guns were up once again, looking around everywhere for the two missing ghosts, and Dude hurried to Saoirse's side to ask if she was alright. She shakily grasped his hand and rose to her feet, her stare flicking up from the ground to meet his black opal eyes filled with concern and relief. 

"She... _wasn't_ lying," Saoirse whispered, and Dude both nodded and shrugged in a sort of, 'Yeah, I knew that the whole time' kind of way that made her frown. 

"You're okay, though, right?" he pressed, and she nodded silently without letting go of his hand right away. Danny flew out of the water and called out to Camry, his hands cupping his mouth.

A spot in the water a few yards beyond the pier bubbled and frothed, and both Camry and... Camry came up kicking and punching each other. A string of nonsensical, enraged words poured out of Relle's mouth, and Crom grabbed her around the neck to drag her back under. When they reemerged, thrashing and swinging with all their might, their fight left the water altogether and rocketed into the sky with Camry hot on Crom's tail. Steam rolled off her in clouds as her body temperature spiked far too high for a living person and evaporated all the water clinging to her skin and clothes.

"You _do not_ threaten my best friend!" she roared, delivering a solid blow via flying roundhouse kick to Crom's gut. It sent him stumbling back, but he easily caught the knife hand swipe she aimed at his throat and twisted her arm around in an attempt to subdue her. Her response was to kick off a tile and literally flip along with the twist's direction, thereby nullifying the attack. It gave her momentum she needed to grab and throw him over her shoulder in her signature move. Danny recognized it from the 1920s party in Dora's realm. 

"Get down behind me and cover your ears, guys!" he called out to the other four, who were quick to do just that. "I've got an idea about getting them all out at once."

Taking in a deep breath, he curled his hands into fists at his sides and reached deep inside for the power hidden within his icy core. He found it, and with his exhale Danny let out a long, earth-shaking wail that stirred up the water, destroyed all the pods in one go, and even cracked the very ground they stood on. He would have slumped forward as soon as the wail died if not for Sam's hand on his shoulder, steadying and helping him refrain from changing back to his human form. He shot her a grateful smile over his shoulder and rasped out, "Get everyone back to the beach A.S.A.P.! Relle and I will take care of Crom."

"Be careful up there," Sam said to him before rushing by, taking the initiative and disappearing into the throngs of people that were mostly just standing around in absolute bewilderment. 

Speaking of 'up there,' Camry was certainly busy keeping Crom from reaching the citizens that had been his prisoners up until a few seconds ago. He'd let out a wail of his own, filled with anguish and angered loss, when every last one of the weird green pods had evaporated and scented the air with the citrus-y tang of ectoplasm. Then again, he also wanted to retrieve the camera around Camry's neck, and the second he knew he no longer had the citizens as leverage he redirected his energy toward his one last hope of winning. 

All too suddenly, Relle found herself falling back into defensive maneuvers more and more as Crom's slippery moves got under her guard and threw her off balance. A well-placed left hook collided with her jaw and sent her spiraling down toward the lake's surface, and though a white film negative appeared just beneath her, a second rescue option snatched her up on his way to shooting icicles at the snake possessing the body of a young teen.

Haughtily, Crom merely created a glowing white shield and deflected all the spikes of ice easily. They shattered into flakes and snow that melted in midair. "Ah, you children can be quite entertaining at times. Still, there's no way you can truly defeat me. That snake you sucked into your piddly contraption was simply a projection of myself."

"Like the little green snakes," Camry realized under her breath. She didn't want to say it out loud for fear of Crom getting an idea to bring them back. To do so when most of the freed people were still filing onto the beach and toward relative safety could have catastrophic consequences via mass panicking.

Danny set Camry back on her feet when she created a tile to stand on, and she rubbed her jaw absentmindedly while yelling back at the ancient ghost. "You're a _coward_ , Crom, and if you don't want your eye destroyed in the next few seconds, you'll get out of my body _right now!_ "

In answer to that, Crom cupped Camry's hand against her chin and pursed her lips contemplatively. "Hmm... And yet, something tells me you won't want to destroy it. We've been over this before, girl. Hand over the eye or I will make certain you _never_ return to your body."

"Don't," Danny said quickly, extending a protective hand out in front of her. 

Camry frowned peevishly at that. "I wasn't gonna."

"I know, but still," he persisted. "We'll think of something else."

"I already have," Relle answered, stepping under his arm and taking a ready stance for leaping into action, "and it's called-- watch out!"

Maybe Crom really had heard her mention his little minions, because all of a sudden he threw his stolen arms out toward the two of them and unleashed a volley of glowing white snakes to rain down on their heads. They tried to run in opposite directions but ended up smacking into each other instead, and before either could shake off their disorientation the avalanche caught them. However, for Relle, she caught a glimpse of the snakes closest to her blurring together before she suddenly couldn't move. Wind rushed past her face, and though she struggled, her arms were pinned and her legs restricted by a giant, slightly translucent _hand_. The projection extended from her body's own right hand, which was clenched in the exact same pose and seemed to exactly mirror what the projection did.

While Danny struggled to fling off the snakes wrapping him up, Camry was lifted up and brought face to face with her physical body and the being currently keeping it alive, as much as she hated to admit it even in her own thoughts. Crom snickered at her predicament triumphantly, painting her face with a smirk that unsettled her to no end. "Perhaps you need a little convincing, girl," he said, and to Camry's shock they took off straight up in the air. 

The shore below them, the crowds of people evacuating toward dry land, and even Danny shrunk to tiny specks in the blink of an eye. Somehow, even with the wind rushing past her ears and threatening to drown out the sound of her core beating wildly in her chest, she could have sworn a faint, accented voice cried out her real name fearfully from somewhere along the pier. Camry didn't stop struggling, even as her arms grew tired and just kicking wildly proved to be entirely useless. It amused Crom, to say the least.

"I can end _everything_ for you on a whim," Crom threatened, bringing her in closer even as the bone-chilling air whipped his overgrown bangs into his eyes. "You cannot stop me, and you shall not win. However, I will give you one _last_ chance to return what you stole from me. You can repay my kindness with your undying loyalty after I regain my godly status."

Her response to that was a hateful, burning glare that contained the heat of active volcanoes deep in her fiery irises. "I'm surprised you haven't just taken it from me yet, Crom." When she struggled once more, Camry found her arms were now allowed to move through the projection in order for her to comply with Crom's demands. 

With the wind rushing past her face and whipping her cerulean hair all around, Relle slowly gripped her precious Polaroid and held it tight, looking at the top of the plastic body with unparalleled fondness brimming in her heart. She could vividly recall her father giving it to her, entrusting her with its safety. 

_"The first camera I ever had was a Polaroid, so it makes sense for yours to be one, too," Mason Dowell explained as he set the device firmly in his twelve-year-old daughter's hands. Her iolite eyes widened at the unexpected weight, but she didn't dare drop it. "Do you think you can do a good job of keeping this safe, Cammie?"_

_"Yeah!" she declared, a flame of excitement kindled in her young face. The scar on her cheekbone, about two years old by then, was noticeable on her face but no longer as red as it once had been._

_"And that means you need to stop picking fights with the other kids, Cammie, or else your camera might get broken," Mr. Dowell reasoned gently, putting his hands on her shoulders to make sure she paid attention to his words. "You don't want that to happen, right? Because we're not going to just keep buying you cameras every time they break if you can't keep it to a minimum."_

_"I know... I'll try not to fight the mean kids at school so much, Daddy."_

"Sorry, Dad," Camry whispered, as tears welled up in her eyes and boiled into steam when they streamed down her face. Before Crom could snatch the camera away, she pinched it between her palms and pressed them together with all her might. Lava glowed bright red-orange and spilled between her fingers, melting the plastic and filling the air between her and Crom with an acrid stench. 

"No, no, _no!_ " Crom shrieked, reaching for her with his other hand to try and stop her before it was too late. If he had seen this coming and reacted sooner, maybe he would have won-- but he didn't.

With a final push, the lens cracked, then shattered and twinkled like diamond dust as the pieces melted in midair.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nooo... She BROKE her CAMERA! 
> 
> You all have NO idea how good it feels to FINALLY write out what's been stewing in my head for _months_ now! I hope you like it as much as I do.
> 
> As always, please comment down below and leave kudos as well! I really appreciate every bit of support you show for this story. See you in the next chapter!


	36. Chapter 36

RECAP:

With a final push, the lens cracked, then shattered and twinkled like diamond dust as the pieces melted in midair. 

\---------------------------------------------------

After learning of her Polaroid's connection to Crom, Camry had absolutely no doubt whatsoever in her mind that he'd shared some sort of telepathic, maybe even spiritual connection to the device all this time. That was why his scream didn't startle her because of its unexpectedness-- she knew that crushing his 'eye,' which _must_ have been a major part of his power, would have some sort of effect on the snake ghost. What startled her about the scream was how it seemed to rock reality itself with how loud and animalistic it sounded, even when it came out of her own body's mouth.

The hand encasing Relle dissipated in wisps of white smoke, and Crom smacked his stolen fingers over his eyes as he writhed in agony, his screeching all but blowing Relle off her feet. Bits of the destroyed camera plummeted through the air on their way toward the lake far, far below, where the water would cool them down and put an end to their smoldering. Even as lava still lingered on her palms and between her fingers, Relle clapped her hands over her ears and hunched over, her face contorted with pain. Were her ear drums busted? Were they bleeding? She couldn't tell, but there was no way there wouldn't be damage to deal with from Crom's keening. 

The screams died away, and when she looked back up Camry had just enough time to catch a glimpse of her vacated body limply dropping like dead weight before Crom-- the _real_ Crom-- appeared before her in all his majesty, a terror to behold and the stuff of nightmares for years to come. His left eye was glazed over with a milky white sheen, rendering it useless just as she predicted. He bared his fangs, too angry to speak real words, and lunged.

Too bad gravity was just a little bit faster. Camry vanished her tile and fell like a stone, following after her body as it fluttered just as much as any unconscious person falling through the air to their death would. Something told her that Crom was hot on her heels, but that wasn't really the most important thing to worry about right then; if she didn't catch herself before her body hit the water, then a fall from this height would certainly render it too demolished to ever hope to return to it! 

A black and white streak cut through her vision, and Danny took one look at the situation before zooming past Relle, the wind he created blowing her hair to one side and making her spider silk shirt snap. "Go!" she barely heard him yell, and the sound of an explosion behind her spurred her to fall even faster.

With core pounding in her ears and palms sweaty inside her gloves, Relle let her eyes roam a little over the scenario presented to her. There she was, falling at terminal velocity and trying to gain even _more_ speed in the meantime, while her shell of a body was flapping in the wind and uselessly heading right for the churning surface of Bailey Lake. She could see over the tops of trees and, at this height, even over one of the smaller mountains that ringed the far side of the lake, though her field of vision was gradually lessening as she lost altitude. 

And, of course, there was the unnatural landmass of a pier jutting out toward the center of the lake. Those little ants so far below had to be the last of the imprisoned citizens being led to safety. 'They look like they're moving so slow...' she thought, though tears from the wind blurred her vision and forced her to wipe at her eyes with the back of one hand. 

"Focus!" she yelled, her voice snatched away by the wind. "Focus, Cam! _Focus!_ " 

Her body was falling, and falling _fast_ , toward a tragic demise, and it was up to Relle to save herself no matter what. Even if she couldn't 'recreate the circumstances of her death' in time, she still had to try, and this was the place to start. Relle's hands curled into fists, and it took more strength than she expected to keep them straight and rigid against her sides. If this was going to work, she'd need to keep her aim as steady as possible.

She had only one chance. Do-overs were not an option in this situation.

Rather than let her heat pour out in a continuous stream to maintain a flame, Relle let the power build in her fists-- more specifically, the tops of her last knuckles-- until twin trails of smoke followed behind her. Then she released it all at once in a burst of fire that propelled her even faster toward the ground. 'Like a rocket in reverse' she thought wryly, though she couldn't even manage a smirk lest her lips starting flapping from the air rushing past her face so furiously. 

Good, now she was starting to draw closer to her target. Relle took note of how her sweatpants and camisole, ragged and dirty from seven months' wear, were loose at her front and pressed tight against her back from the G-force. She put on another burst of speed, using her feet this time as well as her fists, before reaching a hand out in a desperate attempt to will her body nearer. The beach was growing bigger and bigger with every passing split second, and soon she could just barely make out distinctions between individual people standing at the edge of the pier. Two in particular stood together, but it looked almost like one was holding the other back-- from what? From jumping in the water? From shooting? There was hardly any time to pause and consider the options. 

Why were the little waves on the lake's surface suddenly so easy to make out?

" _GrrrRRAAAAAAAAAAAAH!_ " Relle screamed as she poured the last of her energy reserves into a final, maximum blast of volcanic power that propelled her through the distance between her and her one goal. Now that she was only a couple of feet away, she put both hands out to try and grab Camry's hands, but they kept whipping all over the place so that she was caught in a stupid-looking version of death-defying _patty-cake_. "No, no, no, no!"

There was nothing she could do! She was seconds away from hitting the water, and she couldn't catch her body in time to slow down their descent before impact! This was it: her body was going to be obliterated at the lake's surface, and her core would develop fully and she would never remember anything about being a spirette, or meeting Danny and his friends, or trying so desperately to beat Crom and get back to her own friends--

_Smack!_

Even Relle's own negative thoughts couldn't help but derail when the back of her hand whacked the back of Camry's, and in doing so her flapping had stilled for the briefest of moments. Relle seized the opportunity and Camry's wrist, using it to pull them both together and wrap an arm around her shoulders. Relle closed her eyes, and even as tears wafted up into the sky above and behind her, she smiled. 

And then Relle was gone, as if she had never existed in the first place, and Camry continued to fall. 

 

 

 

Little did she know that high up above, Danny and Crom were in the middle of duking it out when Crom saw Relle using her volcanic powers to blast herself past terminal velocity and toward her own body. He let out an offended yell and spewed out a jet of his bright green fire. His aim was true, and his attack hit its mark just as Relle vanished and Camry hit the water. 

The impact was silent, marked only by a flash of green light and a shock wave that knocked those still on the pier and closest to the water's edge onto their rears. The brilliant green light was gone as soon as it had arrived, and the water became glassy-- _eerily_ glassy. Closest to the impact spot, Dude and Saoirse scrambled to their feet, as much as it pained their bodies to move so suddenly after being blown onto their butts and nearly pushed back far enough to topple over backwards into the lake. Saoirse was the first to recover, and she leaned out over the water as far as she dared.

With her hands cupped around her mouth, she screamed as loud as she possibly could, " _Camryyy!_ " and received no answer. One hand wandered to a spot by her sternum and clenched into a firm fist. It was amazing she could hear anything over the terrified pounding of her heartbeat in her ears. 

" _Cam!_ " Dude chimed in, his gaze darting left and right over the lake's surface to search for any telltale ripples or bubbles. " _Caaam!_ "

Still, not a soul moved, and she didn't surface. Saoirse suddenly gasped as if she had remembered she'd left her oven on, and she backed away from the precipice to begin stripping off her jacket and winter boots. Dude pivoted his stance so he could glance back and forth between her and the water as he asked in a disbelieving tone, "Saoirse, what are you _doing_ right now?"

Tucker and Sam rushed up to meet them at the edge, having finished helping the last of the literal _thousands_ back onto dry land, just before Saoirse replied with determination. "I have to go in there after her!"

"¿M-Me estás bromeando?" he sputtered, his black opal eyes wide. "Saoirse, what are you _talking_ about?"

"It's _winter_ , and practically cold enough to snow!" Tucker exclaimed. "You'll freeze!"

"I'll be fine," she assured them, though she certainly didn't feel as confident as she tried to sound. "I'm a good swimmer."

"That's not the point!" Dude insisted, and was about to say more when he was cut off abruptly. 

" _Camry can't swim!_ " Saoirse bellowed as she wrenched off her second boot and flung it to the side haphazardly. Then she was on her socked feet and backing up in preparation. Just before she began her running start, she met Dude's eye and offered him a soft smile. "It'll be alright. I'm gonna bring her back."

And she was off! Twenty steps after, Saoirse leaped off the edge's corner and curved into a near-perfect dive even as Dude and Sam called out to her uselessly. _Nothing_ could have prepared her for the shock of instant chill that ate away her body heat in one bite. The unexpectedness of such cold alone nearly made her lose the breath she was holding. 

Even so, she kicked and stroked as hard as she possibly could, her strength of will propelling her through the water and, when she couldn't stay under any longer, back up to the surface. Her head broke free and she sucked in a grateful gulp of oxygen that stung the back of her throat, which was raw from screaming her best friend's name. Her soaked hijab clung to her head and still covered all her hair, by some weird blessing of luck and her expertise in pinning it down securely. The air after her little 'dip' was suddenly worse than just being in the water, and she wasted no time in diving back in to reach the general area where Camry had fallen in.

It took nearly a dozen resurfaces to finally reach the approximate spot she had seen Camry hit, and with each breath she could feel more and more of her body going numb. Her fingers and toes were the first to go, predictably, and her nose lost all feeling soon after. By the time she reached her target area, Saoirse's lungs began to burn with an icy fire that made her want little more than to be out of the water, out of the cold, and in her mother's arms. Better yet, in Camry's arms, which was the little thing she wanted much more. 

Saoirse drew in the deepest breath she could possibly muster and knifed straight down, spreading her hands out as far in front of her as she could while feeling around blindly. She tried to open her eyes but was met with just a blurry blue-black wall of blindness. 'At least there's no chlorine to get in my eyes' was her only thought toward that. 

Her resolve wore out, and she kicked back up to the meniscus and gasped like a fish out of water when she finally reached sweet, sweet air. The Irish-Pakistani girl paddled a little farther out and repeated this same process, widening her search radius each time she came up empty-handed. After seven dives, the fear that Camry wasn't even there to be found sprouted in her heart and clutched it in a grip that was colder than the wintry water surrounding her. 

" _C'mon, Camry!_ " she wheezed, spinning around and around as if that would tell her where to go. The others' voices coaxing her to come back were faint mosquito buzzes in her ear, and she drowned them out with a mighty dive that she gave the last of her energy to. Saoirse swam with enough conviction to rival an anime, and even as her common sense screamed at her to go back up and breathe precious air, she ignored it and kicked even harder. 

Wait, was it just her imagination or did her fingers swish past a warmer patch of water? Her stomach clenched in disgust at the idea for all of a millisecond before the truth dawned on her. She pushed and kicked with a reckless strength she didn't know she had left, reaching out with both hands and feeling around blindly for that warmth. There it was! She was at her limit for air, and she could feel a looming dizziness tingling at the edges of her consciousness, but all of that was swept aside when her knuckles tapped against what could have been a forearm-- or a piece of debris, considering how her hands had lost literally all feeling at that point. 

Nevertheless, a surge of bubbles tickled her numb face as she huffed with bold resolve and latched onto the object in a one-handed grip; her other hand went to work scooping and pushing back the water above her as her legs thrashed furiously to propel her toward life-giving oxygen. ' _Please, please, please_ \--!' she pleaded with Allah, and the grey light of the sky bathed her face in its melancholy glow.

This time, when her head was above water and she could breathe again, Saoirse hardly hesitated to pull up with both hands whoever or whatever it was she had found. Water plagued her eyesight, but the vague shape of pale blonde in front of her was as good a start as any. Saoirse blinked the lake water away and found that she was replacing it with saltier water of her own an instant later.

" _Camry_ ," she rasped. The girl she was supporting under the arms as her weary legs continued to let her tread water was unconscious, as limp as a rag doll, and yet very much the exact person Saoirse had been wanting to see again for more than half a year. 

However, now she had a problem on her hands, both literally and figuratively. As exhausted as she was just by finding Camry, now Saoirse was faced with the prospect of dragging her as well as herself back to the pier, which had to be at least two hundred yards away from their current position. Any hopes of Danny swooping down and snatching them out of the water were dashed to pieces when she tilted her head back to look up at the battle raging on in the sky; he was a little too preoccupied to take notice of them, not that he even knew they were in the water in the first place. Unless either Tucker or Sam were even better swimmers than she was, Saoirse highly doubted they or Dude would come to her rescue in the next few minutes.

And, of course, there was the matter of Camry not exactly _breathing_. 

"Camry!" Saoirse called out, bringing up a numb hand to smack her friend's cheek with just enough force to rattle her. What if she inhaled too much water? She couldn't do proper CPR while treading water! "Camry, _please_ , wake up!" 

She shook her shoulders back and forth in a frenzied attempt to rouse Camry, but all it succeeded in doing was to make the blonde's head loll back and forth, then settle on 'forth.' " _Please_...!" Saoirse pleaded in a broken sob. "Please, Camry, I-- I need you to wake up _right now!_ "

She leaned toward the other girl and let her eyes drift shut out of despair for the unforgiving cold seeping into the marrow of her bones and threatening to end her short life right then and there. Saoirse's stiff grip on Camry faltered, and she reacted quickly to catch her and pulled her right up against her body. Maybe they could keep each other warm... 

... Except, for Camry to be warm, that meant she had to be alive, right?

Her startled gasp rocked Saoirse to the core and made her almost jump out of her own skin, but Camry's arms were there, wrapping around her to keep her from going too far. She thrashed a little and struggled to take even breaths, but Saoirse held her tight and called out over her splashing, "I'm here, Cam! I'm here. I'm not gonna let you drown."

"S... Seer--?" Camry panted. When she tried to look up at the other girl, her overgrown bangs completely blocked her view, and when she tried to push them to the side she started to slip down under the water. It shocked her into surging forward and scrabbling for purchase on Saoirse's shoulders, the only things keeping her from a second death. 

"Calm dow-- _calm down!_ " Saoirse warned as she readjusted her hold on Camry and held her as close as possible without losing the ability to tread water. "I-I-I-I'm-m h-h-here."

"Oh my god," Camry whispered, her iolite eyes going round behind her bangs. "Saoirse! Wh-What're y-y-you d- _doing?_ "

"S-S-Sav-v-ing y-y-you," she ground out just as a gust of wind caught the back of her head and made her wince, "I-I think."

So, the cold had finally caught up to her when the adrenaline wore off. Now Saoirse could see even more clearly that this had been a huge and stupid risk on her part-- not that she hadn't seen it when she'd resolved to jump into the lake in the first place. The two girls clung to each other, the shorter one crying and fighting her urge to panic while immersed in one of her worst childhood fears, and the taller of the duo knowing that what they really needed to do was head for the pier. But could she even move her body anymore, much less swim a distance of almost three football fields' length?

At least Camry was alive, and somehow comfortably warm. It did Saoirse's body and soul some good to hug her tight. "C-C'mon, we... w-we gotta-- gotta swim b-back," she stammered around her chattering teeth. "J-Just lie back, ok-k-kay?"

Camry was about to open her mouth to reply when another explosion rocked the sky and caught her attention. Head craned back and mouth agape, she saw Danny go flying as Crom reared his ugly head and hit him dead-on with a bolt of fire. Then it was back to thrashing around as her panic finally found a foothold in her conscious mind and nearly dragged the two of them underwater. 

"I have to get up there! I have to help Danny and stop Crom and-- Saoirse I don't know how to change back I don't know what to do I can't change I can't save you what do I do whatdoIdowhatdo--?" she rambled out in the same breath.

The only thing that stopped her in her tracks was a frozen hand stiffly cupping her cheek and bringing her lips in to clash against Saoirse's. Camry's entire body went as rigid as a marble statue, her eyes wide and unblinking as she struggled to process _what the hell Saoirse was doing_. 

They separated less with a pop and more with a sigh followed by a slump in Saoirse's body posture. Her legs had lost the endurance to keep kicking, and more and more of their bodies were dipping lower into the water as she groggily rushed to explain. "Y-Y-You c-can do it, C-Cam. St-top p-p-p-panicking."

"You-- You kissed me," Camry dumbly stated; she had yet to blink, but when she did it was in a flutter of confusion as she felt them sinking. " _Saoirse!_ Saoirse, hold--!"

Something cold and slippery wriggled around their ankles and yanked, dragging Saoirse and Camry back under with the kind of startling strength that horror movies always like to use for fatal jump scares. They disappeared with barely a shriek of surprise. As water filled her nose and clogged the gears of her brain, Saoirse felt her grip on Camry loosening against her will. 'No--!'

And then white light tinged faintly with orange cut through the darkness of her eyelids, and a surge of heat traveled from her middle to her head and feet at the same time. Sure hands caught her under her back and knees, lifting her out of the water and back into the wind. It didn't get the chance to freeze her, though, because everything was warm-- warm and gentle and protective. As hard as it was to do, she pried her eyes open and found her nose pressed against the crook of a neck encased in skintight, black hazmat material. 

Steam wafted into the air as the dampness in their clothes was chased away and the fire below them incinerated the little green snakes, minions of Crom, as they emerged from the settling waves. Camry's grip tightened ever so slightly, bringing Saoirse closer to her chest and the source of this life-saving heat coursing through every inch of her body. "Seersh... I-- I'm--" she started to say, but was cut off by Saoirse finding her tongue and interrupting.

"I'm so sorry I didn't believe you!" she yelled, clinging close and burying her face in her best friend's shoulder. "I was scared, and confused, and all of this had to happen right when I realized how I felt and I just-- I'm so, so sorry!"

Camry didn't know exactly how to respond to that, and instead kicked her leg around without even jostling her crush much at all. A wave of fire lashed out at the last of the snakes and filled the air with the smell of campfires. Something wet and very, very warm landed on Saoirse's shoulder, contrasting to the freezing chill quickly being chased away by Camry's core's volcanic heat. 

"I'm sorry, too," Relle whispered in a quivering voice. "We've got a lot to talk about, don't we?"

At that, Saoirse weakly laughed and leaned into her even more, if such a feat was even possible at that point. "Think of it as your incentive to beat Crom quick and come back to me."

A joyful peal of laughter rang out across the lake, and suddenly they were running, zooming a few feet over the water and back toward the pier. Fire formed a wall behind them and trailed after, lighting up where they'd been and enchanting Saoirse when she looked back over Camry's shoulder. By the time they could clearly hear Dude's barely understandable Spanish, Tucker's relieved scolding, or Sam's frantic queries after their wellbeing, the last dregs of hypothermia had been exorcised from even the tips of Saoirse's fingers and toes. She didn't want to let go when Camry set her socked feet back on the damp earth of the pier, but Dude's sudden and crushing embrace was hard to ignore. 

"¡No siempre incluso pensar en hacer algo que nunca más loco!" he cried out tearfully, folding both girls against his chest and shaking them back and forth. "¡Nunca te olvidaré!"

"Sorry," Saoirse said honestly, hugging back and taking his fears to heart, even if she didn't know exactly what he was saying at that very moment. 

"Did you make it back in your own body?" Sam quickly asked Camry, who nodded and beamed at her with more joy than a kid at Christmas. "And what about Crom? Danny's still trying to fight him by himself!"

She froze, her eyes round with realization, and immediately was released from the group hug so she could jump up onto a tile and gauge the situation at hand. High, high above, Danny was barely a speck buzzing around the hulking monster that was Crom. If she could see anything from such a distance, it was clear that he needed backup _stat_. "Oh, jeez. Okay, uh, lead the rest of the people to Delta Pin, alright? We shouldn't let them stay so close to the fighting."

"Good idea," Dude agreed, and was about to make the huge mistake of running off to go do just that. Camry made to dash away, but stopped and looked back over her shoulder at the mixed emotions of Saoirse's radiant face: joy, gratitude, concern, and something else Camry didn't think she had the right to name just yet.

"Um... Maybe... One more? For luck?" she asked hesitantly, her cheeks aflame with an orange and pink glow. Her hand reached up to brush her overgrown bangs behind her ear and fix them into place idly.

Saoirse's eyebrows shot up at the request, then settled back down as her lips pulled into a gentle smile. With both hands out toward her and fingers crooked, she beckoned Camry into her arms and kissed her again, this time receiving a response by getting shyly kissed back. It only lasted three seconds, tops, but it left the two teens breathless and giddy nonetheless. 

"Go," Saoirse urged her. "You've got this, Cam."

Camry nodded, a determined and confident grin lighting up her features, and dashed away at top speed. She pointed her index finger in front of her and gradually shifted it upwards, creating entirely _vertical_ film negatives that she in no way should have been able to run up. To that, she simply laughed and leaped up to plant her foot against the nearest one. Two triangles, slightly overlapped and pointing in the same direction of up, appeared underfoot, and to the shock of everyone watching she rocketed in that exact direction like she had put on a burst of nitrogen or rocket fuel. The first tile gave her enough momentum to reach the second, and the second to reach the third, and on and on and on until she was just another speck in the sky like Danny. 

But she was still going! Her tiles had begun to level off a little, but she was steadily regaining altitude and closing in on the battle between Danny and Crom without either noticing. Even as she watched with awe sparkling in her eyes, Saoirse's cheeks grew warmer and warmer as the other three's eyes drifted from Camry to rest on her specifically. Dude in particular was very vocal about his feelings toward what had just happened right in front of him.

" _AAAAAAAAAH_ oh my god _you two_ \--! And _she_ \--! And _you_ \--! Oh my god _what?_ " he all but squealed with unbridled delight. 

Meanwhile, Camry watched as Crom lashed out with the tip of his tail and snagged Danny around the waist, pinning his arms to his sides and rendering his legs useless. There was probably something ghostly he could have done to get free, but the look on his face told her he was both exhausted and too beaten to do much more than struggle. As much as she wanted to rush in and pry him loose, she forced herself to keep going higher and higher while positioning herself directly above the two of them.

"You're overcooked, but you'll do," Crom spat angrily, squeezing Danny until he cried out and temporarily quit wriggling. 

The evil snake opened his mouth wide, his jaw unhinging and displaying to Danny the very sight Camry witnessed in her own kitchen oh so long ago. Frozen power built up in his eyes in preparation to retaliate before he could be swallowed, but he didn't get the chance to fire. Another shape, monochromatic save for her blue hair and tawny boots, barreled down on top of Crom from above with a war cry and slammed her folded hands down into his skull with enough force to make the snake let Danny go. Crom was sent plummeting into the lake hundreds of yards below before he could even react! The shock wave her attack sent out knocked Danny back as well in a wall of heat, but he recovered a lot quicker and flew up to meet a slightly out of breath Relle where she stood on her signature film negative tile. 

"Whoa, Cam, that was _awesome!_ " he cheered. "Did you get to your body in time?"

"Yeah," she laughed, relief washing over her yet again as it finally sank in. She was going to be okay! "Are you alright? Sorry I made you fight by yourself for so long."

"Aw, c'mon," Danny scoffed. "Guys like this are _nothin'_. I probably could've handled him a little longer before I was even in any real trouble."

"Okay, last I checked he was about to eat you, but okay," was her disbelieving reply. "Anyway, the people are being herded back to Delta Pin, and all that's left is to make Crom pay for everything he did to this town."

Danny held up a fist, and after a second of wondering what to do about it, Relle tapped her own fist against it. "Ready to kick butt, Relle Phantom?" he asked her.

Pink flushed into her cheeks at the question, but she fought through it to smile with determination. "I'm always ready to kick butt, Danny Phantom."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's my secret... I'm always angry.
> 
> Just kidding! Oh, MAN, this whole thing, all 5000+ words, was written in the span of maybe four hours! My fingers huuurt, but it had to be done (no, it really didn't, but I don't know when to quit). 
> 
> Also, I SO wanted Camry to shout "GEEET _DUNKED ON!_ " when she wailed on Crom and sent him crashing into the water at the end of this chapter. That wouldn't have really been a good idea altogether, but I guess imagining it will have to suffice.
> 
> Here are the translations for Dude's Spanish! They're probably not too accurate, but it's been a while since second-year Spanish for me so I doubt I could have done a better job ^_^' 
> 
> ¿Me estás bromeando?: Are you joking me?  
> ¡No siempre incluso pensar en hacer algo que nunca más loco!: Don't ever even think of doing something that crazy ever again!  
> ¡Nunca te olvidaré!: I'll never forgive you!
> 
> On that note, I thank you for reading and urge you to leave a comment or two down below! Also, don't forget to vote! See you in the next chapter~


	37. Chapter 37

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> RECAP:
> 
> Danny held up a fist, and after a second of wondering what to do about it, Relle tapped her own fist against it. "Ready to kick butt, Relle Phantom?" he asked her.
> 
> Pink flushed into her cheeks at the question, but she fought through it to smile with determination. "I'm always ready to kick butt, Danny Phantom."

"Sir, sir!" The lieutenant's voice, pitched higher than usual with panic, cut through the blaring of an electronic alarm bell vibrating in the air. "Something about the quarantine zone has changed in the last few minutes!"

In the underground portion of an outpost situated at the edge of the 'safe zone' surrounding the barrier placed over the city of Bailey Lake, the chief of the government's Supernatural Affairs Division sped over to the control panel the lieutenant sat at. He squinted over her shoulder to take in the sight of the readings jumping all over the screen and reaching new heights never before seen in the area-- or any area, for that matter.

"What am I looking at, exactly, Lieutenant?" he asked, though something told him he already knew. ' _More_ ghosts? How? The barrier hasn't reported a breach since it was erected!'

"I-I wish I could say, sir," she stammered, her hands busy with pressing buttons to reveal the numerical values of the timeline graphs displayed on adjacent monitors. "The ectoplasmic signature changed suddenly, as if _multiple_ new and powerful ghosts just appeared _inside_ the zone. That doesn't make any _sense_ , though!"

The chief's frown deepened as his brain ran through the different but rather limited options available for him to follow. While it was too risky to send troops in, machines were an entirely different matter, and a drone with a camera could hypothetically go in and make it back in one piece. The contamination would be a pain to deal with afterward, though, and their staff was incredibly limited now that they were enduring their third month of uneventful containment. 

He stood up straight then, assuming an air of authority to deliver his orders. "Lieutenant, call off the anti-ecto missile launch until we know _exactly_ what's in there. And I want eyes in the sky inside the zone _yesterday_. Understood?"

"Roger!" she answered. One hand shot up to the earpiece she wore so she could place the call for holding off the missile launch. Her voice was loud in order to be heard over the alarms still ringing.

"And turn down these alarms-- we already know something's not right about this!"

~

Rain clouds loomed in the sky, threatening a second round of rain to pour down on the fight raging over the lake. The two Phantoms certainly were holding their own against the gigantic snake ghost trying to swallow them whole, but as they fired attack after attack at his body it became clear that Crom's scales were just naturally resistant to their attempts. 

'It's _not_ just a projection thing' Relle realized with a grimace as she just barely dodged Crom's tail trying to whip her out of the sky. She saw Danny fire a widespread barrage of green energy blasts, nearly all of which hit their mark, and Crom shake them off like they were simple mosquito bites. 'We need a new strategy!'

Crom let loose an arc of green fire from his mouth and directed it at Relle, who simply put her hands up and parted the attack like Moses parting the Red Sea. The heat tickled her arms and ruffled her blue hair, but to a ghost with a volcanic core, his fire was all too manageable. Then she ran down the path she'd made and zipped up higher, gathering energy in her fists to prepare for an attack of her own. He didn't see her coming right away as Danny shot ice into Crom's one good eye, effectively blinding him, and Camry's twin punches in rapid succession into the side of his face pushed him back and down closer to the water. 

"We need a new plan," she panted, and Danny drifted over to float in front of her. His breathing was also labored, and the front of his white hair was marred with ash and still smoking ever so slightly. Relle took one look at it and shot a hand out to pat it multiple times, thereby extinguishing it. Danny looked miffed at the treatment, but thanked her anyway while smoothing his 'do back into place. "You're welcome. Anyway, energy attacks don't seem to be working against him."

"I realized that, too. Ice and lava have been working so far," Danny remembered quickly. "We gotta fight with those powers as much as we can."

"Yeah, but I don't know if I can keep up summoning so much lava over and over again," Relle reported gravely. "I'm starting to feel nauseous, actually."

"Hang in there," he said, and then looked down beyond their feet to see Crom picking off the ice coating over his working eye. "If only he wasn't so, y'know... experienced. He's been seeing through our strategies really fast!"

Relle frowned at that, a gloved hand on her chin in thought, and then sucked in a sharp breath through her nose when an idea blessed her brain. "I think I--!" she started to say, but then was too busy jumping out of Crom's way to finish her sentence. She and Danny split, taking off in opposite directions and firing ice and lava behind them in unison. Crom dodged easily, and their own attacks nearly struck each other as a result of their poor planning.

"Ah!" Camry shrieked, lithely twisting to avoid the shards of ice, sharp as knives, that blew past her whole body. The edge of her transparent silk shirt caught on the tip of one such icicle, but rather than tearing it carried her off her tile completely. She found herself soaring through the air by the front of her shirt and away from the battle entirely. With both hands, she seized the icicle and melted it straight through the middle, then skidded to a halt on a path of film tiles before looping back to re-enter the fray.

Meanwhile, Danny stared wide-eyed at the wave of lava descending on his head and only just barely remembered to turn intangible in time to not get burned. The smoking goo passed through him and continued on down toward the lake, where the water would cool it into harmless rock. When out of harm's way, he let out a huge sigh of relief and steeled himself for another swing from Crom. 

"Do you children truly believe you can defeat me?" Crom chuckled, his fangs glistening under the weak light filtering through the heavy cloud cover. "I have exisssted for more than a thousssand of your lifetimesss! You will perish jussst asss all the othersss who once opposssed me have!"

"Uh, I hate to break it to you, but I think I already defeated you once," Danny pointed out casually, a mildly triumphant smirk on his face. His eyes flicked to the right and caught sight of Relle trying to sneak up on Crom from behind and hit him with another wave of lava. 

Whoops.

Crom saw him accidentally reveal Camry's plot and lashed out behind him with his tail, sweeping her legs out from under her and effectively knocking her off her platform. She yelped in surprise and managed to catch the edge of her tile, which became a ledge she used to swing back and forth on. With enough momentum built up, she let go and flipped in the air, then landed in a crouch on yet another film negative. 

The display only made Crom laugh yet again. "What naivete," he gloated. "Even with one eye, you can't hide from me! Give up! You cannot win!"

"I don't think so!" they answered in sync, each adopting a stance ready to go on the offense. 

Relle and Danny rushed him in unison, letting out similar war cries as they charged and brandishing their bright powers. With fire and ice working together, their attacks struck Crom around the head at the same time and disoriented him so they could regroup and think up a new plan of action. 

"As I was saying," Relle wheezed after her sprint back to Danny, who floated in midair easily and expectantly waited for her, "I think I have an idea."

"Lemme hear it," he said rapidly, his hands clenched into ready fists and held up should Crom recollect himself sooner than they expected. 

"Maybe, since he's so old and his scales are too tough to break through, we gotta do this old school-style," she suggested slyly, putting her palms together. A hot scent filled the air as red-orange light filtered between her fingers. "Can you make things with your ice?"

"Sure I can," Danny said with a shrug. "What do you mean by old school, though?"

"I mean, like, 'we're gonna go slay the dragon,' knights in shining armor, stab stab stab," was her oh so helpful explanation. Her face grew pinched in concentration, and her hands slowly drifted apart to reveal what looked vaguely like the hilt of a sword made of ashen lava rock. Veins of red-hot magma glowed throughout the entire thing, even in the curved blade itself. She was by far no master sword smith, so her workmanship was certainly nothing to fawn over, but it looked like it would get the job done. By the time she had finished extracting it from the lava pouring out of her hands like a molten waterfall, the weapon resembled a Chinese dao more than any other sword. 

A greenish tinge appeared on her face, to which Danny raised an eyebrow before putting his hands together quickly to follow her example. "Okay, I think I see where you're going with this. You're sure, Cam?"

"We gotta-- _blurgh_ \-- gotta find a way to actually do some damage, right?" she rhetorically pointed out around a lurch in her stomach. She could tell there was _no_ way she was going to be able to do something like craft a sword out of magma at the drop of a hat if it was going to make her feel this sick every time. 

"Let's hope this works," he muttered before also concentrating on the image he formed in his mind. The sword clarified down to the details in the hilt and hand guard, and before he knew it Danny had a broadsword in a two-handed grip. Ice crystals jutted out from the hand guard menacingly, each a tiny, sharp blade in their own right, and the whole thing glittered a pale ice-blue impressively. 

The two teens were so enamored with looking at their medieval creations that Crom had very little trouble sneaking up behind them and releasing a steady stream of pale green-yellow fire aimed right at them. Twin screams of fright echoed over the crackle of flames searing everything in their reach only to die down far too suddenly. From down on the ground, both Saoirse and Sam took a step forward out of fear for the person they most cared about and felt the urge to call out to them, as useless as that would have been.

Amidst the green flames, something dark, dark grey and streaked through with orange sliced upward until the razor sharp tip peeked over the flurry. It came down in one mighty swipe and cut through the fire, dispelling it almost instantly. Camry stood there, between Danny and Crom, and glared up at the enormous snake with a miffed look on his scaly face. 

"Do you... _know_ how to use a sword?" Danny Phantom asked her hesitantly, as if the idea was still dawning on him.

"A little. Pandora taught me," Relle Phantom answered before readjusting her grip on the hilt and gritting her teeth for a second. "Let's do this."

Danny let out a whoop of excitement and shot into the air, his legs vanishing to be replaced by a wispy black tail that waved back and forth in the breeze. His sword refracted light through its facets not unlike freshly fallen snow as he zoomed through the sky and gained Crom's attention. The snake hissed, and smoke poured out from between his fangs in preparation for another fiery attack. Meanwhile, Camry dashed downward on her tiles to take up a stance a little lower in altitude. When she stopped, she found Crom almost directly between herself and Danny. 'Good,' she thought. 'Maybe I can make the picture in my head work after all.'

As for exactly how she was going to put her plan into action was another matter entirely. Those speed boosting 'fast forward' tiles she's made before were a perfect substitute for flying, but Relle knew in the back of her brain that making and using them were putting an even heavier strain on her energy reserves. 'I've gotta make sure I use them sparingly.'

Not only that, but she was going to have to be sure she didn't get in the way of Danny's attacks. The _last_ thing they needed was to be skewered on each other's swords because of their lack of experience with dueling. Crom, looking at Danny with unbridled menace, seemed to realize something by the way he flinched and twisted 180 degrees to see Relle dashing right toward him, her sword in optimum slashing position. 

For all those looking on from below, the next few seconds were filled with pale blue and hot orange blurs darting back and forth across Crom's lithe body. Each connection with the ghostly snake was marked by flashes of color, sometimes respective to their powers and sometimes a simple neon green. He roared and flew into a flurry of rapid, frantic struggling in a futile attempt to avoid the much tinier ghosts flying in a tight orbit around him. All it succeeded in was making the monochromatic 'bees' edge away for a second and then dive right back in with their swords. 

As the little gashes in Crom's scale grew in number and intensity, it became clear he was losing the strength to fight back. "No, no, no, _no!_ " he cried out, his voice reverberating off the water and even the mountains in the distance. Even as he writhed and panicked, neither Danny nor Relle were about to let up their strategy any time soon. During one fly-by, she even held out a hand to Danny and let out a cheer when he slapped it on his way past. Their high-five was like a firework exploding with its burst of light and sound that resembled a gunshot. With each going as fast as they possibly could, it was a wonder the smaller bones in their hands didn't break. They did shake it out after making contact, however, and could only marvel at what their powers colliding had done.

Wind whipped at their hair and clothes, pulling insistently and threatening to make Camry miss her mark when leaping from one fast forward tile to another. She scrambled to keep her footing and dropped to one knee, her sword's tip embedded in the glowing film negative. It stayed in there for only a second before dissipating in shards of white light, leaving her to fall until a second tile materialized and caught her a few feet below. She puffed and panted, her lungs _screaming_ for her to slow down and catch her breath. "Where did this _wind_ come from?" she wondered aloud, then glanced down at the shore to see much of the retreating crowd shielding themselves and trying to block the gusts, too. Even Saoirse was having trouble keeping her hair covered since her impromptu dip in the lake had loosened the clips pinning her hijab in place. At least Dude was there to help as he ushered her, Tucker, and Sam back to shore all the way. 

Relle lugged her sword up as she got to her feet and saw Danny Phantom as he delivered a swift and mighty uppercut into Crom's jaw and sent him flying end over end. The snake spun three times and managed to stop, where he curled in on himself a little and wearily glared at the two teens. The regrouped directly in front of him, and Danny pulled out his own Fenton Thermos from its place clipped to his waistband in the back. 

By the way Crom's eyes grew wide with fear, he knew exactly what was coming next. Green ectoplasm dripped from his wounds and splashed into the lake noisily far below. 

"Care to do the honors?" he asked Camry as he held out the Thermos to her.

Her answer was to put a hand on it without taking it for herself. "Together."

They nodded in unison, then situated the device between themselves and aimed it right at the resigned ghost that was the cause for the sweat on their brows and the fire in their lungs. Danny wrenched the lid off, and a beam of blue-white light shot forth and hit its target in the neck. As he was pulled in, Crom Cruach opened his mouth and spat out one last promise to each of the victors.

"You have not ssseen the lassst of me, _children!_ " he bellowed. "I will _never_ let you forget me, and I will return to ssswallow you _whole!_ "

The tip of his tail was the last to slither inside, and Danny capped it with a breath that carried a relieved note of finality with it. Camry's grip on the Thermos loosened but didn't break away altogether, and she found herself leaning into Danny's side. Why did her entire body feel so boneless all of a sudden? 

"It's... It's over," she realized. Despite her exhaustion, a huge smile spread across her face. "We did it!"

"We did," he agreed with an equally tired chuckle. "Consider yourself avenged, Cam."

Then her arms were around his chest, and Camry's face pressed into his shoulder. "Thank you _so much_ , Danny. I never could've done this without everything you did for me!"

"H-Hey, no sweat," Danny said in a poor attempt to appear suave in the face of such heartfelt gratitude. His cheeks were tinged with pink-- from embarrassment? Probably. 

"I mean it!" she insisted, pulling back to look him right in the eyes. "First of all, I would've starved back when we actually met, and--"

"Cam, _really_ ," he interrupted gently. "I was happy to help you out. You don't have to thank me so much.

"Now," Danny continued with a glance down at the public slowly making its way through the barren streets of the city. Only a handful of stragglers was left behind, including the two pairs of best friends waiting for them to return. "Whattaya say we go change back and call it a day?"

Relle gasped loudly at that, her sphalerite eyes wide as a thought struck her like lightning. "I have to find my parents and show them I'm alright!"

~

After dashing off-- with Danny supporting Camry because her legs were like jelly after so much intense jumping and running-- and finding a secluded alleyway near the lake to change out of their Phantom alter egos, the half-dead duo hurried back to the crumbling pier and found their friends anxiously waiting for them on the rocky beach. The second Dude and Saoirse saw them jogging over, they took off at the same time and swept Camry up in joyous hugs and loud congratulations. As bedraggled as she was, Camirelle still laughed and celebrated with them.

"Did you guys feel that _wind?_ " Saoirse asked breathlessly, her eyes alight with wonder and happiness. 

"Almost knocked me off my feet," Camry reported. Even though she wanted to be miffed at that, her heart was too overfilled with excitement to honestly care all that much. She shifted her stance over the pebbly beach and felt a little bit of chill creeping up into her bare toes from the damp shore.

"Why do you ask?" Danny asked curiously just as raindrops began to sprinkle down around them. One such drop landed on his nose and froze instantly, clinging to his skin until he picked it off with a fingernail.

"You two totally did that!" Tucker exclaimed. "All the flying around each other and Crom-- it changed the _weather!_ "

"We... We what?" Camry gasped, and her eyes met Danny's in twin looks of disbelief. "Our powers working together did _that?_ "

"I mean, I've already had a little experience with controlling the weather," he said, easily as surprised as she was, "but it did _not_ go over as well as that."

Sam rolled her eyes at that. "Either way, we felt it all the way down here. I'm glad you two are on the same side. If something like that was accidental, just think what you both could do on _purpose_ , right?"

"But we hafta go find our parents!" Dude interjected quickly, bouncing on the balls of his feet in anticipation. "C'mon, c'mon, c'mon!"

"Wait, what are _we_ supposed to do now?" Tucker wondered half to himself and half to his two friends and Camry. 

She pursed her lips in thought. "Maybe just stay close and together. We'll figure out something for later tonight, m'kay?" 

On that note, Dude hefted her over his shoulder with a roar and took off down the beach. Apparently he just couldn't stand to wait around for even a second longer. Camry let out a high-pitched squeal of surprised delight and collapsed into giggles where she hung like a sack of flour. Considering how Dude was only in the five-foot-five area of height and definitely on the leaner side of body types, it was pretty impressive how he could carry her so effortlessly. Saoirse shook her head with a laugh and followed, catching up to run behind him and talk to Camry on the way.

"Ack-- okay, that was fun for a few seconds, but I'm gonna set you down," Dude said, and crouched to let Camry slide back onto her feet. She winced at her bare soles touching the rough concrete of the sidewalk, but she didn't have to stay that way for long because he took one look at her feet and spun around, exposing his backside to her. "Here, climb on. We'll be able to see over the crowd better this way!"

"Good idea," she agreed, hooking her legs around his sides and squeaking when he put his arms under her knees and hiked her up higher on his back. Her cheeks burned with a heat she could feel all the way to the tip of her nose and tops of her ears. Now that she was a couple feet taller, she could see the throngs of people milling outside up and down the road and the tallest glass dome ceiling of Delta Pin a couple blocks away. With so many people clogging the streets, it would take _forever_ to get back to the shopping center!

Saoirse squinted, putting a flat hand above her brow as a shield against the rain coming down a little harder. "Maybe if we take a detour a couple blocks over, we'll find an easier way through."

In answer to that, Camry fixed her overgrown bangs back behind her ear so she could properly see the dilemma ahead of them. She frowned, deep in thought, and glanced up at the rooftops. "Hmmm... Maybe...?"

Then again, with so many people all around it would be unusual, if not impossible, to use any of her ghost powers without being spotted. Besides, the rooftops ended before the giant parking lot, so was there really a point if they were stopped halfway by all the congested foot traffic? As large as the mall was, there was virtually no way the entire city could feasibly fit inside, which was why so many throngs were gathered together outside. Names were called out with utter relief at top volume, tearful reunions ensued on all sides, and the first stages of recovery from a (super)natural disaster began as the citizens of Bailey Lake began to get back on their feet once more. 

The sight of everyone being safe at long last filled Camry's heart with a warm feeling that brought a smile to her face. Something told her that everything was going to be okay now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lame ending is lame, I know, but the story's almost over and I have more important things to write! Comment below and tell me your thoughts, okay? I'd love to hear what you have to say! 
> 
> Only a couple more chapters left! I hope you're as excited as I am about this!


	38. Chapter 38

Riding piggyback on Dude, Camry squeezed his arm and leaned over to speak softly in his ear. "Don't worry, Dude. We'll find your mom and sister soon." 

He answered with a weak smile and a gentle squeeze of her shin for good measure. "Lo sé..."

Rain pattered on the rooftops and sidewalks, sprinkling over the heads of everyone unlucky enough to be caught without something to cover themselves with. It had yet to grow into a steady downpour, but only time would tell if the winter weather would allow for that. As Dude and Saoirse struggled to weave around and through all the people still trying to process everything that had just happened, Camry kept her head held high and her eyes peeled for anyone she might be able to recognize. 'Now I just wish I'd met Dude's mom and sister before so I'd know their faces...' she thought as they drew closer to Delta Pin.

It was a good thing no one took notice of or commented on the fact that Camry was the only 'survivor' to come out of the Crom ordeal without looking like she'd been frozen in time. By the way she kept having to fix her bangs every time they fell into her eyes, it should have been obvious, but another small miracle must have been granted. After everything that had happened in the last few months, maybe a few small miracles were in order.

"Can you believe a _ghost_ did all this?"

"Ghosts aren't real. Are you kidding me? Maybe the government did something as an experiment."

"I dunno, man..."

Everyone seemed to be going down their own paths of reasoning to hash out the cause of their rather impromptu imprisonment-- and subsequent release. 'If only they knew the truth' Cam had to think as a vice of guilt gripped her heart. 'None of this would have happened if I hadn't opened the stupid oven door in the first place.'

Their going was unbearably slow, and after a few minutes of trying not to push or shove too much the trio stepped off to the side of the street and found themselves standing in the mouth of an alleyway. They had only managed to move about half of a block down the road, which meant they still had a long way to go to reach Delta Pin. Judging by the despairing look on Saoirse's face, she was not looking forward to facing her mother's wrath from having run off without saying where she was going. 

She reached into her back pocket and pulled out her phone, which was predictably dead after her dive into the lake. "Mum's gonna _kill_ me... And I can't call her or tell her where I am, either." Saoirse leaned back against the brick wall that made up one side of the alley and uselessly pressed the home button on her smartphone over and over. 

Camry slid down from Dude's back to give him a little rest, and she stood on tip toes with ease to avoid stepping on anything sharp or pointy. Dude let out a sigh and thanked her for the break before turning back around to gaze out over the sea of people. He wasn't exactly the tallest boy in the world, so his vantage point didn't do much good. 

" _¿Mijo?_ "

To Saoirse and Camry's confusion, Dude let out one of the loudest gasps either girl had ever heard and swerved to look down the road. His black opal eyes were shiny with relief and hope as he exclaimed, "¡Mamá!" at the top of his lungs and ran toward a woman who was only a few inches taller than he was. Her wavy hair was long and dark, thrown up into a bun that had started to fall apart, and she wore a long-sleeved pajama top with frayed sleep pants that didn't match. Behind her, a girl the same age as Dude beamed at her brother reuniting with them at long last. 

"¡Mijito, estás a salvo!" she cried, enveloping him in a bear hug and cupping the back of his head securely. The rest of her Spanish was too hurried to quite catch in its entirety, but her words didn't need to be understood in order to realize her feelings. Dude hugged back energetically, reassuring her that he was fine and that he was so happy to see her again in the same tongue. Understandable tears were shed unabashedly. 

Then the girl who could only be Ariadna, Dude's twin sister, was pulled in before she could sign anything to the rest of her family, and the group hug warmed the hearts of all who set eyes on it. Camry and Saoirse, fond onlookers of the scene before them, found themselves drawing nearer to one another, and the shorter of the two nudged Saoirse's arm affectionately. Saoirse smiled and reached out just far enough to take Camry's hand in her own; the action made Camry blush a dark pink that brought a giggle out of Saoirse. 

The giggling only grew louder when Maria Hinojosa quickly went from overjoyed to 'scolding mode' in the span of a few seconds when she registered all the personal touches Dude had made to his hair, ear, and eyebrow in her absence. 

They watched as Dude and Ariadna signed rapidly to one another, their hands practically twin blurs of motion that left Camry wishing her sign language was anywhere near as flawless as theirs. She knew how to say a select few things in ASL, but only what Dude had taught her sparingly over the course of half a school year. Since she had disappeared in very early July, her summer had been cut rather short in its early stages and all her activities meant to keep her busy while her parents worked had made it hard to find time to hang out with either of her two best friends. 

"Oh, Mamá! I never introduced you to my friends!" Dude realized when he looked back over his shoulder and saw them standing in the mouth of the alley, exactly where he'd left them. He ushered his mother and sister over to begin the long-awaited introductions. "This is Camry, and Saoirse. Guys, this is my mom and my sister, Ariadna."

"I've heard so much about you both!" Ms. Hinojosa twittered merrily with the remnants of tears glittering in her eyes. "Muchas gracias for keeping my son out of trouble. And _especially_ thank you for tutoring him so much, Camry!" She punctuated her gratitude with a hug to each girl, who accepted it graciously and smiled at the cheerful young woman. "I'm glad your smarts seemed to rub off on him a little. Every bit helps."

" _Mamá_..." Dude groaned, rolling his eyes for good measure. 

Camry giggled at that and shook her head. "Really, I was happy to help. Oh, and thank you so much for the flowers after second term ended! They were beautiful, and I really appreciated them."

"Flowers...?" Ms. Hinojosa echoed. The confused expression on her face only served to confirm Camry's suspicions about the true origin of the gift. 

Arms folded across her chest and a huge cheese-eating grin on her face, Camry leaned toward Dude indicatively and raised an eyebrow. "Busted~" her iolite eyes sang. He seemed to wilt a little bit at being caught in the lie, but at the same time he couldn't stop a smile from peeking through his facade. It wasn't like she was doing this to be mean, after all. 

Meanwhile, everyone else could only guess at what was going on between those two. 

"Are you two alright, though?" Saoirse jumped in. Worry carved creases in her brow. "It's so cold, and you're both in your pajamas. We should try to hurry to the shopping center."

No one made any arguments against that, and as one unit they pressed onward through the crowds. To make a long story pleasantly short, a survivor from Delta Pin who was directing traffic around the parking lot took notice of how Dude and his mother were signing to Ariadna and hurried up to them. "Are any of you disabled?" he asked, looking between each member in the family of three. 

"My sister is deaf," Dude answered.

"Alright, follow me. We're trying to usher everyone who's disabled inside as a priority, so we'll make sure you're taken care of first and foremost," he explained before gesturing with one arm to a cleared path that wound its way up to a side door in the outer wall. It was propped open and monitored by another adult to make sure people didn't sneak in and ruin the system the survivors were trying to implement.

Saoirse and Camry stuck close to the Hinojosas and found their trio back inside in record time, out of the cold and sprinkling winter rain. The side door led to a furniture store full of the elderly and disabled being tended to by doctors and nurses who worked at the city hospital. As ragtag as the scene and all the people there were, seeing so many others selflessly leaping into meaningful action could have softened the heart of even the most surly person. One such nurse rushed over to Ariadna and her mother, and after hearing the specifics of the teen's impairment she signed an explanation of how she was going to check over the teen for injuries. Ariadna consented and was led over to a display bed to get comfortable.

"They're making food!" an unseen passerby announced happily as she paced down the main hall of the shopping center. "Please form an orderly line outside of the bistro and wait patiently! There will be enough for everyone!"

"Food?" Dude repeated eagerly, practically drooling at the thought of a hot meal after all the excitement of the day so far. "Oooh~ I'll bring some back for you and Ari, Mom."

"Alright, mijo," Ms. Hinojosa allowed. She sat on the edge of the bed and pulled her daughter into a warm side hug. "Hurry back."

"We will!" He sped off toward the entrance that led to the main hall, Saoirse and Camry in tow. Noisy chatter rose up on all sides of the trio as they swerved around meandering survivors and avoided getting their toes stepped on as the crowds started to thicken around the aforementioned bistro. It had been commandeered as a makeshift soup kitchen.

The smells of hot food wafted out and into their nostrils, and Camry was suddenly reminded of just how underfed her physical body was. What had Crom been doing during all that time while in control of her body? 'That's not something I think I want answered' she decided even as a sharp growl from her stomach cut through the air. Both Saoirse and Dude eyed her when they heard the noise, and she awkwardly tried to laugh it off. "I gotta say, being back in my own body is kind of underwhelming."

Dude, Saoirse, and Camry filed into their place in line and mentally urged the queue to move faster. As more and more 'customers' ambled in, nowhere near as many walked back out through the secondary entrance further down along the wall. Some carried out their food to eat elsewhere. "Something tells me we won't be getting to the food anytime soon," Saoirse sighed mournfully. As soon as the scent of hot soup and spaghetti hit her nose, she'd realized exactly how hungry she was, too.

Finally, some ten minutes later, the line had moved on far enough to put the trio of teens just outside of the door. The bistro was packed to its capacity, making it impossible for the vertically-challenged Camry to even hope for a look back into the kitchen from her vantage point. It was a little bit of a stretch, but hope has a funny way of making all yearn for even the most ludicrous of possibilities. "Do either of you have a clear shot of the kitchen? I'm wondering who's making all this food."

Saoirse sucked in a deep breath through her nose and closed her eyes in thought. "Hey, yeah. It _does_ kinda smell like your mom's recipe."

'Leave it to Saoirse to read my thoughts' Camry mentally giggled. "It wouldn't surprise me at all if she took charge of something like this."

Yet again, her bangs had slid down to cover her eyes when she moved her head to the side too quickly, and she was forced to tuck them back into place behind her ears. A specific figure caught her attention from the corner of her field of vision as she brushed her hand back beside her face. She turned ever so slightly to get a clearer view. Camirelle's iolite locked onto smoky quartz brimming with unexpected hope.

She whirled around to fully face him and showed off a brilliant, overjoyed smile in his direction. " _Dad!_ " 

Mason Dowell wore a well-loved 80s band T-shirt and jeans. His hands were full with a tray of used dishes, but those he practically threw aside to rush forward and smother his once-missing daughter in a tearful embrace. She clung back and pressed her forehead into her father's shoulder. "Oh, Cam, we thought-- I'm so glad--!" he sobbed, carding his fingers through her blonde hair. She must take after her mother in that particular department, because his was a mousy shade of brown with a little bit of a waviness to it. 

"I'm fine, Dad. Really," she assured him, growing misty-eyed even as she spoke. During the month and a half of being away from him, the longing for his hugs and presence had been set aside to make room for more pressing matters; now it had returned, built up during that absence, to hit her like a battering ram all at once. Camry held on even harder and smiled wide when he rocked her side to side a little. "I'm sorry I made you worry so much... I-It's all my fault."

"Honey, don't-- don't blame yourself for this," Mr. Dowell said quickly, pulling back and looking Camry in the eye. He cupped her cheek and offered a watery smile to try and lift her spirits. The sight of her dad crying certainly wasn't something she was used to seeing, but she returned the gesture anyway. "It's not your fault, Camry. Nobody could have predicted whatever it was that happened. I'm just glad you're safe after all."

He looked past her shoulder then and noticed his daughter's two best friends standing there in line, which was starting to inch forward once again. Saoirse was holding her upper arm with her other hand and wearing a wistful expression on her face, like she was yearning to find her own parents. Dude simply looked happy for Camry to have found her dad. 

Mr. Dowell straightened up and wiped at his eyes but kept a hand on his daughter's shoulder. "C'mon, we should go show your mom that you're alright," he said, then gestured to Saoirse and Dude. "Saoirse, Dude-- you both, too. Hungry?"

" _Definitely_ ," Dude agreed emphatically. The thought of getting a fast pass to the front of the line left him salivating greedily. Saoirse smiled and nodded. 

The three of them were plucked out of line and brought around to the back of the restaurant, where authoritative voices called out instructions to the other cooks working their fingers to the bone. Two handle-less doors were all that kept Camry's mother from seeing the truth she'd hoped for ever since she had gotten the first of many calls from the police department so many months ago. Before she or her father could push them open and walk in, Camry grabbed his arm and effortlessly held him back for a second. A younger teen that had been roped into the position of a busboy pushed his way into the kitchen, carrying the same tray that Mason had dropped to hug his daughter.

"Wait a sec, Dad," Camry said quickly. He looked back at her curiously.

"Are you nervous or--?" he started to ask.

She shook her head. "No, no. Just... Make sure she's not holding something hot or sharp, okay? I don't want Mom to drop anything or get hurt."

He smiled and nodded at that, then made a "stay" gesture with both hands before poking his head in between the swinging doors. "Sadie, are you busy?"

"You know I am, Mason," Sadie Dowell called back before the sound of a heavy pot crashing into a sink half full of soapy water drowned out all other noise in the kitchen for a split second. Then she was there, a sauce-splattered apron tied around her waist and her wet hands wrapped up in a dish towel. "We've got so many people to feed. What is it-- aaaaA _AH!_ "

Ah, so she had caught sight of her ragged daughter at last. Camry's eyes widened at the shriek of surprise and resisted the instinct to step back. Then she was hugging her mother, repeating the same process of assuring her that she was fine as she hung on with all her might. Those sparks of heat in her eyes returned stronger than ever, but the warm tears didn't fall until her dad pulled them both close and created a big group hug. 

When Camry felt her mother's own tears falling into her hair, she leaned back a little and smiled as bright as she could, given that she was also trying and failing to dial back the water works. "I-It's okay, Mom. C'mon, let's uh... not be standing in front of everybody." 

Sadie's watermelon tourmaline eyes looked a little bit greener than usual as a result of the salt water brimming in them. As weird as it was to see her strong parents cry, Cam couldn't blame them one bit-- she'd missed them so, so dearly during all those sleepless nights in her room at Dora's castle. She could only imagine how much harder it must have been for to two of them. Mrs. Dowell nodded and stood up straight, achieving her full height of 5'10". "C'mon, let's sit and talk. I want to hear everything." 

Of course, she couldn't forget her two best friends, and Camry beckoned for them to follow her parents into the kitchen. They walked past the bustling cooks, an army made up of restaurant workers and well-versed parents, to find themselves next to some of the supply crates the government had sent in the most recent shipment. Camry caught sight of the logo stamped on the side of one such wooden box and froze, her mouth going dry as she remembered there was another threat still looming over her head. 

"What _happened_ to you?" Sadie started off, wasting no time at all. When she wanted the details, she spared herself of the formalities and pleasantries more often than not. "Cam, we-- we thought the worst. Was it those snakes that got you, too?" 

'In a sense,' she thought dryly. "I... Yeah. I was under the lake just like you two were. Saoirse and Dude told me a lot of what happened, but I guess... Maybe I was the first one to get bitten? Since it sounds like people weren't going missing until after I did."

Oh, she so wanted to tell them everything about the last month and a half, but what was the point in scaring them so soon after reuniting at last? She pretended to confirm her 'guess' by looking back at Saoirse and Dude, who both nodded. Somehow, Dude had already snagged a plate of pasta and was devouring it with gusto, so when he looked up to respond he had spaghetti noodles spilling over his chin and cheeks like a chipmunk. Both girls snorted in unison at the sight.

"You haven't seen any of my family yet, have you?" Saoirse then asked hopefully. 

"Your mom, actually," Mason spoke up after thinking back for a second.

Sadie smiled gratefully. "She was the one who set us up in here to start feeding everyone. Your brothers were with her, too." 

"But... not my father?" Her voice was quiet and carried an almost undetectable note of betrayal in it. 

Sadie reached a hand out to Saoirse, but Cam beat her to it and clasped Saoirse's right hand in her own left one. "We'll find him, Seersh. Promise," Camry vowed firmly. 

"I know," she sighed, leaning against the shorter girl for a brief moment. "I'm just... anxious to have everyone together again."

Mr. Dowell turned to look at his wife, asking a silent question with little more than his eyes and body posture, and she beamed at him. When she nodded, it made her blonde curls bounce merrily around her face. Then they were both on their feet. "Alright, girls. Now that the Dowells are all together, let's go make sure the Mahadeo's find each other, too. Dude, have you found your family yet?"

Dude swallowed the last bite left on his plastic fork and nodded quickly when his mouth was empty. "They're both back at the furniture store, where the doctors and nurses are taking care of the people with disabilities."

"Alright, then it's up to you whether you want to come with us to find Saoirse's parents or go back to them," Mr. Dowell said kindly. 

Dude looked at Saoirse and Camry then, concern written clearly on his face. "You guys okay with me meeting you later?"

"Go for it, Dude," Camry answered easily. 

"We'll be fine," Saoirse chipped in. "See you later."

"Hasta luego," he called back as he rounded the corner to find himself back in the main cooking area. Dude ducked and wove around the chefs, picking up two plates of pasta as he went and guarding them all the way back to the furniture store. 

Mrs. Dowell clapped her hands together suddenly and let out a breath. "Alright! We can split up into pairs and start in different areas of the mall to search. Saoirse, you can come with me, and Cam, you go with Dad. Text me if you find them before we do, and stay where you are, got it?"

"Yep!" Camry answered as she snapped into a rigid salute with her right hand. 

"We'll meet back at the bistro in an hour if we don't find them first," Mr. Dowell added. "Sadie, you're sure they won't need you here?"

"The kitchen was starting to get a little too crowded to work properly, anyway," Mrs. Dowell answered with a flippant wave of her hand. "I'll delegate the important things to other people before I leave."

"Ready? Break!"

~

"I can't believe you would just run off like that!" Mrs. Mahadeo yelled after the tearful reunions had finally dwindled. She had found her husband, Harris, long before the Dowells or Saoirse had and had been frantic to find the missing teen since her initial disappearance. "Where did you go? Why didn't you answer me when I called or texted?"

"I dropped my phone in the lake, Mum," Saoirse answered, holding up the device in question. "It got water-logged and shorted out. I was..." She steeled herself for the half-truth she was about to admit. "I was just following Dude because I was worried about him getting hurt, okay? He was going off with those ghosts from before, and they were going to the lake, and..." There she left her explanation off, not wanting to say anything more in case she contradicted herself. 

In all honesty, she hadn't told a single lie at all. The only reason her statement was a half-truth was because she had purposefully left out the parts where she minimally helped fight against Crom and saved Camry from drowning. The fact that she had to keep her parents in the dark twisted her insides into painful coils of dread, but there was nothing she could do about that. 

A stormy expression crossed over Mrs. Mahadeo's face, and Saoirse was quick to jump in with something else to add. "But don't get mad at Dude, Mum! Those ghosts are the ones who _saved_ everyone from Crom Cruach."

"I would'a been stuck under the lake _forever_ if they hadn't stopped that snake," Camry piped up as she slid into place next to Saoirse. "And I saw Dude helping them, too! Saoirse was just trying to look out for him, that's all."

Mrs. Mahadeo closed her eyes and let out a long sigh through her nose, her palms pressed together in front of her lips. "Thank you, Camry, but that still doesn't change the fact that leaving without letting an adult know is both forbidden and _dangerous_ ," Eleanor answered in a calm, pinched tone. "We were lucky none of the zoo animals attacked you two, let alone the snakes biting everyone!"

Her citrine eyes landed on Camry's face, and an unreadable look crossed over her features as her gaze lingered for a few seconds longer than necessary. A quiet little voice of anxiety began to whisper in Camry's ears, and a crawling itch spread up her spine to fan out across her shoulders. Her hands instinctively clasped together against her chest. "Is... something the matter, Mum?"

"Hm?" the Irishwoman hummed. By the way she blinked multiple times and shook her head a little, she almost looked like she was snapping out of a stupor. "Oh, yes, dear, yes-- I mean no. Sorry, I must be getting tired. Spacing off, ya'know?"

"It has been a long day," Mr. Mahadeo agreed, putting an arm around his wife's shoulders. "We should figure out what to do with all this chaos around us, though."

"Mum, why don't we just go stay at our house?" Aidan piped up from his spot on the floor, where he and his twin brother, Liam, shared an extra large plate of spaghetti between one another. His aquamarine eyes sparkled a little brighter with his belly contentedly full of a warm meal. "We've been taking care of it all this time."

"Even though we aren't even _living_ there anymore," Liam added around a mouthful of pasta. 

"Oh, that's right!" Eleanor remembered. "We visited the house every week or so to make sure it wasn't completely falling apart, so it should be clean enough for us to stay there." She turned to look at Sadie and Mason standing nearby. "We can certainly put you all up in our guest room for a while-- at least until the chaos dies down."

"Sleepover~" Camry sang cheerfully, latching onto Saoirse's arm and grinning wide. "Sweet!"

Just then, a trio strolled up to the cluster of families, and Dude was all too glad to see that both of his friends had found their parents at long last. "Hey, there you guys are! By the way, the spaghetti was awesome, Mrs. Sadie."

"Glad you liked it, Dude," Mrs. Dowell said brightly. 

Maria Hinojosa's amethyst eyes all but bugged out of their sockets when she caught sight of exactly who was speaking so casually to her son. She grabbed his arm and murmured something in Spanish in Dude's ear, and his eyebrows shot up as he registered what she was saying. " _Oh!_ Lo siento, Mamá. I forgot to tell you, I guess."

Sadie went up to his mother and held out a warm hand to shake. "You must be Dude's mother. I'm so glad I finally get to meet you! Call me Sadie, alright?"

Ms. Hinojosa accepted the gesture with reverie, a starstruck gleam in her eyes. "Th-The pleasure is all mine, truly. I'm such a fan of your shows! I've learned how to cook so much better since I started watching, Sadie..." The informal address seemed hesitant on her tongue, like Maria wanted to show more respect than by just saying her first name.

This sort of reaction was nothing new to the seasoned professional that was Sadie Dowell. She grinned in as friendly a way as possible and invited the family into their group of chatter-- not that Dude needed an invitation, because he had already slung an arm around Camry's shoulders and was lazily hanging off of her, pretending to be exhausted despite how full of energy he actually was. He said something that didn't make any sense to the adults vaguely listening, and the three teens snorted with loud laughter. 

"You should be very proud of your son, Ms. Hinojosa," Eleanor said. The topic of conversation wasn't listening, so he was none the wiser about what was being said about him. 

"Oh, no, please," she said quickly. "Call me Maria."

"Alright, Maria. He was an _incredible_ help with just about everything he could jump into," Eleanor continued. "Without his energy and spirit, I fear the other survivors would have lost hope a long time ago."

Hearing such positive news brought out a gentle smile on the Hispanic young woman's face. "He always has been someone with contagious and happy moods. I'm glad to know he made things a little easier."

"Do you have somewhere to stay tonight?" Harris spoke up suddenly, as if the thought had struck him like lightning in the last second. "We'd be happy to share what room we have at our home."

Maria looked at her daughter, whose white opal eyes were preoccupied with looking in all directions but kept periodically coming back to her mother and brother. Ariadna caught her mom's gaze and signed a quick question to her, and Maria signed back just as easily. After a few seconds, Ariadna nodded, and Maria turned back to look at the group with a smile. "We'd love to. Thank you so much!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woohoo~ 
> 
> ONE MORE CHAPTER TO GOOO ARE YOU EXCITED?!?!?!?!
> 
> Please comment down below and leave a vote while you're here, okay? I'll be posting the next chapter soon!


	39. Chapter 39

The rest of the day passed in a blur of color, motion, and sound. The Mahadeos' house was similar in architecture to the Dowells', except that their house was wider on the street side and therefore narrowed near the back, leaving their backyard slim and their front lawn much larger. The opposite was true for Camry's house: her backyard was large, and most of the rooms were concentrated to the rear of her house as a result of the strange design. Many of the more recent houses were like that, exhibiting rather unique traits that fit them together like jigsaw puzzle pieces.

A team effort was the main reason for why the Mahadeo household was up to Eleanor's cleanliness standards before the early winter sun could reach for the horizon, which was no longer masked by thick, grey cloud cover. Instead, the sunlight filtering down was sharp and offered little warmth, and the air gained an even crisper quality to it that bit at the back of everyone's throats. Around twenty minutes past three o' clock, every device that had both power and wifi connection capabilities came to life at once to broadcast the government's official report of Bailey Lake's current situation and eventual proceedings.

"The allegedly spectral perpetrator of recent events has been deemed missing in action as of this moment, and in twenty-four hours the quarantine barrier will be deconstructed to allow the coming and going of citizens," the well-dressed politician droned in front of the camera.   
"Furthermore, we will be sending aid into the city in the form of food trucks, funded construction projects, and insurance to cover the cost of any damages that may have occurred during the length of the quarantine. All salvaged merchandise from the shelves of stores has been overlooked and labeled as inconsequential as of eleven-ten earlier this morning, and the retailers who suffered the losses will be repaid in full.

"Also, the anti-ecto missile launch scheduled for this evening has been called off, as our readings indicate it is no longer necessary to re-establish peace in the city of Bailey Lake. Any and all anti-ghost weapons doled out for protective measures are being recalled with absolutely _no_ exceptions. We have dispatched animal control vehicles to return the escaped zoo animals back to safety..."

Upon hearing that specific part of the broadcast, both Saoirse and Camry's mothers raised curious eyebrows at the way the two girls hugged each other with what appeared to be utter relief. Their attention was drawn back to the suspended flat screen television to hear the rest of the announcements, which explained what they already knew: the cause for the 'perpetrator's' disappearance is still unconfirmed, all power and water utilities have been returned to the city, etc., etc.

Afternoon turned to evening, and by dinnertime the last of the clouds had drifted away, giving a perfect view of all seven moons hanging in the sky. The second one from the right was full, and all the others were in varying stages of waxing or waning with the first one on the left being a dim new moon. With their bellies full and warm clothes wrapped around their bodies, the three families enjoyed the little get-together to the maximum in light of the tragedy that had just transpired in their city.

When ten-thirty rolled around, Maria admitted to feeling tired and Harris wholeheartedly agreed. "I think I'll turn in soon," he announced, rising from the sofa and padding to the bathroom to wash up. Dude had been stuck with Aidan and Liam in their room for the night, not that he minded all that much, and Camry unsurprisingly claimed the carpeted floor of Saoirse's room. Ariadna remained with her mother in the living room only because she didn't want to be separated from someone with whom she could communicate.

Camry, Saoirse, and Dude had other plans, though. After snagging some warm blankets, a portable heater, and cushions to sit on, the three of them walked up the fire escape to the roof and set up camp to watch the stars. There were certainly a few things they needed to talk about without the parental units listening in, and it would be hard to explain the arrival of three new guests.

" _Whoa!_ " Dude yelped when the dark-haired head of a boy with bright blue eyes popped up over the edge of the roof. "What the--?"

"Dude, shh!" Camry hissed in case anyone else could hear him and come asking questions. Then, to Danny, "Hey, I'm glad you guys made it. We brought extra blankets."

"What exactly are we doing here?" Tucker asked as he and Sam also came into view, supported in midair by Danny. They alighted on the rooftop and got comfortable, making a semi-circle with Camry and Danny in the middle. The blonde was the only one who didn't need a blanket, so she offered hers to Sam and cuddled up next to Saoirse so their sides were pressed together.

"It's the New Year meteor shower," Saoirse explained. "I doubt they'll be shooting off fireworks from the parks this year since everyone is still recovering from our little mini-apocalypse, but we can still see a lot from up here."

"Makes me wish I had my telescope," Danny sighed, leaning back on his palms and craning his head back to look up at the stars and moons. The light in the sky was so bright that it nearly rivaled daytime, though most of the color was still leeched from everything in sight and turned the world into a black-and-white movie.

However, a shock of color lit up the streets below, giving off a cerulean glow that replaced the need for street lights. Of course! Those were the bio-luminescent trees Camry had mentioned earlier. "Hey, Tucker! Remember when I was telling you about those trees that glow at night?"

"You really weren't kidding," Tuck said, his eyes round behind his glasses that reflected the blue light a little bit, even at that distance. "They look so _cool!_ Is that genetic engineering?"

"I think they graft firefly DNA into them," Camry answered him.

"Did you see that?" Dude jumped in abruptly, stabbing an index finger at the sparkling sky. "It's starting, you guys!"

Soon another white streak flashed up above their heads before disappearing, only to be replaced by half a dozen more. The six teens' eyes were wide and shiny, reflecting the flashes of light as they paraded across the night. There was no lingering sunset nor too many city lights to inhibit their view with light pollution, so the circumstances were optimal for stargazing. Comfortable silence permeated the roof and allowed the muffled sounds of the city to filter into their ears.

After a few long moments, Camry opened her mouth and spoke. "I, uh, wanna thank you guys for everything you did for me back in your world."

"Hey, don't worry about it," Danny answered. "Phantoms gotta stick together, right?"

"Right," she said with a faint smile on her lips. "Do you think I'll have to deal with ghosts as much as you do back in your dimension?"

His lips pressed into a thin line as he mulled the question over. "Well... Maybe. I mean, since you're here now and there's still plenty of remnants from what Crom did hanging in the air, it might attract ghosts here. But you also don't have a ghost portal like my parents do, so maybe they'll leave you and your town alone."

"So, basically... you have no clue," she said in a dull tone of voice.

"Pretty much."

A quiet, quick breath of laughter left her lips at his blunt answer while Camry's eyes remained on the horizon, where the vast sea of stars met the earth. She could see what he meant by 'remnants': faint little green wisps twisting and wriggling like pieces of the Northern Lights. Most were concentrated over the lake, which she couldn't see with all the buildings blocking her view, but a few darted in and out between houses and down streets. There was no way she could have known what they were, but the words popped into her head with barely any prompting: ectoplasmic signature echoes. If she would hazard a guess, Camry would say that she and Danny were the only ones present on the rooftop who could see them at all.

The idea of sharing such a secret with someone-- one of the few people in this world and the next that could understand her startling new vantage point of being-- left Camry with an intimate, platonic feeling that bloomed like a spring flower deep in her chest. She pressed a hand there, gentle and curious, and cuddled closer to Saoirse's side. The taller girl looped an arm around Camry's shoulders and needlessly shared her thick afghan between the two of them. 

Distantly, a muffled _thoom_ sound punched the night air and was shortly followed by a loud _CRACK_ and subsequent shower of multicolored sparks. The firework took the shape of a flower before fizzling out brilliantly. "Guess they decided to shoot off fireworks after all," Sam commented, a faint smile on her face. Three more launched in tandem and exploded, lighting up the sky with green, gold, and red majesty. People cheering down on the ground could just barely be heard from the park where the display took place.

"So, there's one thing I don't get," Sam continued suddenly. She leaned forward to look across the semi-circle at Camry, who did the same to make eye contact. 

"Yeah?" Cam prompted, expecting a question about her home dimension first and foremost.

"You're _gay?_ " Sam blurted out, one eyebrow lifted higher than the other in confusion.

Whoa there! Almost as expected as rain falling in autumn, Camry's face lit up hot pink tinged faintly with an orange glow as she sputtered, "Wait-- huh?"

"Huh?" Danny echoed, looking back and forth between the two girls. "What?"

On Camry's right, Saoirse snorted and tilted her head back as she snickered. "Oh, man, I almost forgot you're all still new around here."

"But I've been seeing you blush at just about everything Danny or Tucker ever says to you!" Sam said. 

From the far end of the circle, Dude guffawed loudly and slapped a hand on his forehead. "Oh, Dios, this is too funny. She blushes at _everything!_ Look, I'll prove it." He rose to his feet and walked behind Saoirse and Camry to crouch next to the blonde girl covering her face with both hands. "Cam, look up."

"Nooo, dooon't!" she whined. Something about her tone said she knew exactly what he was about to do. Danny, Sam, and Tucker watched intently, curious to know what was happening. 

"C'mon, it's hilarious!" Dude laughed and poked her shoulder over and over until she sighed and relented, dropping her hands and sitting up a bit straighter. With a little more showiness than necessary, Dude licked the tip of his finger and poked her right in the cheek, squishing in indent in her skin and making her purse her lips out of a lack of appreciation. For a moment nothing happened at all, but then Camry's face began to burn with an astonishing intensity that her new ghost powers only furthered like never before. Another round of fireworks detonated in the air and highlighted the scene on the rooftop so everyone could see her reaction better. 

_Tsssss_... The dampness on the tip of Dude's finger sizzled audibly as the orange glow brightened, but he didn't pull away until he called out quickly, "Capital of London!"

"Alabama!" Camry squeaked instantly. Her eyes went wide when she registered exactly what he'd said, and she sputtered out an embarrassed, "Y-You said a capital, jerk!" Dude was too busy laughing his butt off to answer, but he waved his hand as if to say, "Sorry, sorry! I know that was mean," as he clutched his middle.

"Our Camry here is just too easily flustered," Saoirse calmly explained, a giggle on the tip of her tongue. "You should hear her try to talk after a cute cashier girl asks if she found everything she was looking for."

"Oh my goood," Camry moaned, her face planted back into her hands. Even the tops of her ears were a bright pink-orange color. "You guyyys, shut uuup...!"

Laughter rolled through the group like a calm ocean ebbing at the sandy shore. It was impossible for anyone to resist its pull, even Camry after a few seconds, and peaceful camaraderie warmed their hearts from the inside out. Dude remained next to Camry and leaned on her back, pushing her into Saoirse that much more while they all gazed up at the falling stars and explosions of color, light, and sound that interrupted from time to time.

"... Y'know, you guys, our worlds are connected," Camry mumbled sleepily. She lifted her head from Saoirse's shoulder to look to her left as she continued with, "Maybe we'll get to see each oth--"

The only reason she stopped was because she inhaled sharply at the empty stretch of rooftop beside her. Danny, Sam, and Tucker were gone, as if they had never existed in the first place.

" _Whoa_ ," Dude whispered, black opal eyes wide and glimmering a dark color under the moonslight. 

"They're gone," Saoirse murmured, like she had only just noticed it, too.

But when did that happen? In the last few seconds? There hadn't been any sounds or flashes of light to warn them. 

"... That sucks," Camry sighed dejectedly. "I didn't even get to say 'goodbye' properly."

"Well, it's like you were saying, right?" Dude spoke up, raising his volume high enough to be heard over a booming firework. It faded, and he lowered his voice only a little bit. "If our worlds are connected, we'll probably see them again. It's not like there are many people out there like you and him, y'know?"

He stretched out on his back to Camry's left, folding his arms behind his head and training his gaze on the meteor shower thousands of miles away. Under the light of the periodic fireworks display, his eyebrow piercing and rainbow-streaked eyes shined brightly. "You've got nothing to worry about, Cam."

She wanted to contradict him; to tell him that their world, Danny's world, and the Ghost Zone in between were all too vast and endless for such a reunion to be so certain; Camry held her tongue anyway. Maybe Dude was right, and there was good reason behind the idea of seeing the oddball trio again. Suffice to say that they had all grown on her quite a bit since their first encounter, so... 'I'd like to think I'll see them some day, despite being from totally different worlds.'

When midnight was less than twenty minutes away, Dude rose from his place lying on the roof and dusted off his backside. " _Weeell_ , I think I'd better hit the hay. Are you guys turning in yet?"

"In a little bit," Saoirse answered, shooting him a grateful smile Camry missed. 

"You're not gonna stay for midnight?" she asked, flabbergasted by how her eyebrows shot up. 

"Nah, I'd better not. See you two in the morning," Dude said in farewell, scooping up his and one other blanket to take downstairs. Two that they had saved for Danny, Sam, and Tucker had disappeared along with them, much to Saoirse's disappointment. 

" _At least we can make up a plausible excuse with all the craziness that's happened around here_ ," had been her way of rationalizing the issue away. 

His footsteps echoed softly down the fire escape. It wasn't until they'd been silent for a number of minutes that the two remaining girls opened their mouths to speak at the same time.

"Saoirse, did you--"

"Cam, I wanted to--"

They froze and stared at each other, then tried to tell the other in unison to go ahead. It clearly backfired, and they snickered before shifting poses and holding both hands out toward one another to decide who would talk first. _Rock, paper, scissors!_ Camry won with rock over scissors, though she wanted to insist that Saoirse should go ahead anyway. 

"Saoirse, I've been thinking about something you said earlier, back at the mall. More specifically... the piano room at that one music store." Camry looked down at her hands pressed together in her lap and watched her thumbs twiddle around each other anxiously. "You don't... really think that about me, do you?"

Saoirse's eyebrows furrowed in confusion, especially as Camry's voice began to warble with the onset of tears. "Think what about you?" the taller girl asked as she reached a hand out and laid it across Cam's ceaselessly moving ones. 

"That... I'm a monster," Camry whispered, and to her internal horror a tear zipped down her cheek to stop at the apex of her chin. 

" _What?_ " Saoirse gasped. The memories flooded back to those moments that must have been set on repeat in Camry's head ever since. 

_I would so much rather know my best friend were peacefully at rest than stuck as an undead_ monster! 

"No, no!" she insisted quickly, taking Camry's hands in both of hers firmly and looking her right in the water-filled eye. "Cam, I was still really torn up about losing you, and at the time I hated how much your ghost half reminded me of you-- the you I remembered and loved. I didn't really mean what I said back then--"

"But can you honestly tell me you don't still think that?" Camry interrupted, louder than necessary as another tear spilled over to join the first. Together they fell, landing on the pile of hands resting on her thighs. "I shouldn't be alive-- I shouldn't be _like_ this! I really am a--"

"Stop." Camry's face was squished between two chilly palms as Saoirse spoke in an even, insistent tone. "You are _not_ a monster. You're my best friend, and I'm sorry I got so mad at you and said those awful things to you. I really do regret them." With the side of her thumb, Saoirse swiped at a tear track that glistened under the glow of New Year's fireworks. "In fact... I want to make it up to you."

"What?" she queried, pulling back out of Saoirse's loose grip and shaking her head quickly. "Y-You don't have to do anything, Saoirse! You're right, I'm just being stupid and--"

"You're not being stupid, Camry," Saoirse maintained. She scooted closer on her knees, fighting the urge to wince at the rough surface pressing through the fabric of her pants, and folded the shorter girl into a gentle, non-invasive embrace. Camry hugged back automatically, tucking her head under Saoirse's chin carefully so as not to pull at the cloth of her hijab. "It's not your fault-- none of this is. But it is my fault for making you feel like it is, so I'm gonna make it up to you."

Cam sucked in a shuddering breath, then let it out slowly. "Okay... What did you want to do?"

At that, Saoirse released the embrace and reached under her hijab, fishing around for something at the back of her neck. When she finally had a hold on it, she pulled it out and held it up in front of them both so they could see it dangling, sparkling under the moonslight. A firework exploded, but neither paid it so much as a knee-jerk reaction. 

It was a ring threaded on a thin silver chain. The jewelry was made up of three separate but woven bands, each a different color: yellow gold, black gold, and rose gold. As soon as she saw it, Camry recognized it immediately; she had seen it in a jewelry case at the mall when she and Saoirse had gone window shopping together to celebrate surviving freshman year of high school. 

"The stimming ring I liked?" Camry asked. A smile threatened to pull up the corners of her mouth too high as she spoke. "When did you get this?"

"To be honest... I sorta realized exactly how I felt when I saw you looking at it in the display case. And when you told me how great it would be to have because it would give your hands something to do whenever you felt nervous. So... I decided that I wanted to give you this and tell you how I felt at the same time." She awkwardly scratched at an exposed part of her chin and mumbled, "I kinda figured I would tell you after your next birthday, but... Yeah."

"Oh, my god, Seersh," Camry gasped, leaning away from her friend to look her in the flushed face. "I can't believe you remember me saying all of that! It was so long ago... Wow. And you-- you really do like me as more than just a friend? But I thought you were straight."

"I've settled on bisexual," Saoirse explained in a soft voice. "Th-This isn't, like, asking you to be my girlfriend or anything-- if you don't want to, I mean-- but I wanted to be honest about it all with you, like you were when you told me you were a lesbian even though you didn't know how I would react to something like that."

Their gazes locked together for a heavy moment, iolite meeting pink tourmaline, before Cam's eyes closed in time with an adorable giggle. She put her hand under the ring, and Saoirse dropped it into her palm, chain and all. Camry slipped it on her right middle finger, where it fit perfectly. Ignoring the chain, she gave the ring an experimental roll up to her second knuckle and giggled again at how it felt to twist around itself in an endless spiral against her skin. 

"I love it, Seersh," she said honestly, positively glowing with happiness as she looked back into Saoirse's face. "Thank you."

To Saoirse's mellow surprise, everywhere she and Camry touched while pressed so close together grew a little warmer, and that orange-tinted blush highlighted her cheekbones once again. "And... I mean, you know as well as I do that I have absolutely no dating experience whatsoever, but... I think I-I'd like to go out with you. If you really want to."

"You would?" Saoirse whispered, incredulous, only to beam when Camry nodded and wiped at her eye to rid it of the last traces of tears. " _Really?_ " Camry nodded again. "O... Okay!"

"Yeah, okay!" Camry laughed, throwing her arms around Saoirse's shoulders and hugging her tight. The gesture was immediately returned, and as they embraced a huge barrage of explosions lit up the night sky, signalling that a new year was upon the world once more. The huge and sudden noises pulled a startled squeak out of the younger girl, but all it did was make Saoirse laugh and pull back a little.

"Hey." She reached a hand up and brushed aside a stray lock of blonde hair that had fallen out of the clip Camry had used to make it possible for her to see clearly. That hand rested by her ear, a warm and tentative presence. "Not to move too quickly or anything, but... we could be that cliche couple for just a minute, right?"

A knowing smile graced her face, and Camry leaned forward. "I think I'd like that, actually."

And so, to welcome the new year and their blossoming relationship taking its first steps in the world, their lips met in a gentle, innocent kiss on the roof that night. 

Pink and purple sparks dazzled all the onlookers watching the spectacular fireworks show from all across the city of Bailey Lake.

Maybe it hadn't gone how either girl had pictured it, but admitting their feelings together and taking that brave step forward could not have felt more right than it did that night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *slams hands down on kotatsu* IT IS DONE! IT IS FINALLY DONE! I HAVE EMERGED VICTORIOUS ON THIS NIGHT, AT 1:07 AM ON THE 25TH OF SEPTEMBER, IN THE YEAR 2000 AND 16, BY HAVING COMPLETED MY FIRST DANNY PHANTOM FANFICTION!
> 
> Wow, it feels good to have this all off my chest at last.
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> *thinks back on all the sequel ideas I have swirling relentlessly in my head* Those are for another day. Another day, I say.
> 
> And with that, I ask that you leave a vote and comment down below! I'd love to hear your thoughts on this chapter, as well as the story as a whole. Thank you so much for sticking with me on this journey, and I hope you enjoyed Negative Feedback as much as I did. 
> 
> See you all later~
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> ... waIT AN EPILOGUE CRAP HOW DID I FORGET THAT


	40. Chapter 40

It's strange to go from sitting on a rooftop in a wintry world far beyond your own, to the floor of Clockwork's tower in less than an instant. Sam, Tucker, and Danny dropped to the floor from a few inches above it and yelped upon unexpected impact, nearly losing their balance. The shock of higher temperatures sent goosebumps flaring up across their skin. 

"Welcome back," Clockwork intoned a short distance away, where he stood next to a bored Kitty examining her painted nails. 

"Clockwork..." Danny muttered. "We ran out of time?"

"It was time for the three of you to return," was all the ancient ghost would say on that topic. "Just as it is time you all returned home before your curfews."

"Curfews?" Tucker echoed, pulling out his PDA and looking at the time syncing up with his own dimension. "Oh, crud! You guys, it's twenty 'til ten! We gotta go!"

The three teens scrambled to their feet and raced out of Clockwork's tower, throwing back waves and calling out "Thanks for everything!" over their shoulders. When they were out of sight, Kitty turned to Clockwork and held out the photographs she didn't want. "What do you want me to do with these?" she asked, uninterested. 

His answer was to reach for them, and she readily relented the pictures to him. Clockwork took one last look at them; the smiling friends of the ghost boy and his two human best friends as they crowded close together; the shyer smile of the ghost girl as she tried not to look too awkward, posed by herself in the frame. Clockwork's expression didn't change in the least bit as he set them alight with little more than a stare. 

The flames were silent, hardly more than wisps of heat, and sent shadows dancing across his face. "It's best if there is little evidence that she was here," he stated evenly, clenching his fist to extinguish the flames and crumble the pictures into ash. "Your effort is very much appreciated, Kitty. You should go back to Johnny and start by explaining how what he said made you feel. Don't worry-- he will understand."

_Everyone_ in the Ghost Zone knew not to take Clockwork's advice casually. On that note, she left to do just that, already forming her opening lines in her head as she flew past the floating purple doors and endless green void. 

Clockwork watched her go, then let out a gentle sigh when he was once again alone in his clock tower. 

"That should be enough. Given a few more years, their destinies will come to light at last."

He turned to stare into a window of the distant future, where a scene of burning buildings and armored men on horses made for a chaotic sight. "History truly does love to repeat itself."

 

~~~

 

"You're coming in with me?" 

Camry's hand had already popped open the passenger side door of her mom's shiny cyan Porsche when she realized her mom had turned the car all the way off. "Of course I am!" Sadie Dowell answered cheerfully. "I need to have a talk with the counselors about what we're going to do about your classes. You missed so much of the school year already, and I don't want to see you falling behind."

'All the other kids are technically behind, too...' she thought in a grumble. "You're not gonna be late for work?"

Sadie smirked and ruffled her daughter's hair, which had been trimmed to its usual length just barely past her chin in the two weeks between her rescue and the first day of school. "They already know I won't be in until noon today. There's still a lot to do around the house, after all. Now, come on! Let's not be any later than we already are."

When Camry finally had her class schedule in her hands and the 'okay' to jump into the middle of first period, she kissed her mother goodbye on the cheek and hurried out of the counselor's main office as fast as she could. Nothing about it had ever seemed comforting to her with its simple pictures, fake cheeriness, and desperate need for a new paint job. "See you at home, Mom!" 

"Have a good day, honey!"

First period American Literature was in the middle of an icebreaker game when the teacher's computer dinged insistently, calling him over to look at the new notification. He sighed at the header of the message: New student added to roster. "I guess this is to be expected, since it's like the first day of school all over again," he murmured, opening it to accept the change to his class lineup. 

A moment later, a short shadow passed over the lower part of the door's window, and the handle turned slowly, almost hesitantly. The new arrival poked her head in first, quickly checked her schedule, and nodded to herself before stepping in all the way. Her entrance had grabbed the attention of everyone in the room, much to her embarrassment, and before Mr. Myers could ask if she was lost a number of her classmates started talking all at once.

"Wait-- _you're not dead?_ "

"Oh my _god_ , I thought she was, like, gone for _real_." 

"So did I! No _way_..."

"Aw, yes!" Dude cheered from his seat by the far wall. His hand shot into the air and waved Camry to the empty seat in front of him. "We have this class together!"

Camry's wide eyes relaxed when she saw him smiling at her, beckoning for her to sit nearby even as the rest of the students stared and chattered like baby birds. 

"There's no seating arrangement today, so sit wherever you want," Mr. Myers said even as she made her way to the spot Dude indicated. Camry nodded to the teacher and set her backpack down, then slid into the chair so her back was pressed against the wall. 

"Sorry for interrupting," she said with a glance at the sea of faces staring back at her. "And no, I'm not dead."

'In a manner of speaking.'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, THERE'S the epilogue. Woohoo! I'm finally done! What a relief...
> 
> Let's celebrate! Comment your thoughts down below, because I'd love to hear from all of you dedicated readers~ WUVS!! And thank you so much for reading! Feel free to check out my wattpad account (same username as on here) if you'd like to read some of my earlier works (They're all Hetalia fics I wrote in high school, so fair warning).


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